'A soldier to the death' wrote a suffragette to Emmeline pankhurst in 1912 who herself in 1913 in a speech called herself a soldier temporarily left the field. For my autumn #booked2019 'soldiers story' i am going left field with this fascinating bk written in 1911 abt 2 suffragettes from different classes fighting for votes. V readable i can't stop turning the pages on this persephone edition.
@4thhouseontheleft @Cinfhen @BarbaraTheBibliophage

When a book is so gripping you just have to finish it before you go into work you know that a series has grabbed you hook line and sinker! The Tom thorne series gets better and better ( think i said that last time) and here tom distracts himself from domestic trauma by investigating a serial killer whose crimes echo a historic murderer. Nasty villain though how Thorne copes lord alone knows!!

My 4th and last b4 the winner is announced tomorrow and i enjyd this story of how leila a Istanbul prostitute ends up murdered in a bin, using the idea that there is a period of time after death when the mind recalls memories of a life we learn of childhood abuse, treatment of sex workers, love and frienship. The finale sees her loyal friends on a hunt to rescue her body which allows the reader to realise how a life impacts on those it touches. 👇

Sixth in the very good tony McLean series and whilst i like supernatural fiction and i love crime fiction usually i don't like the combine but James oswald does this perfectly. Here a pair of very sinister twins arrive in Edinburgh leaving bodies in their wake whilst a suspected brothel raid doesn't turn out as it should causing pressure in the department. The ending suggests a interesting turn his personal life + also wanting me to read bk 7 soon

A remarkable piece of writing as the author imagines the effect of chemical castration upon the genius mind of alec Pryor (Alan turing). Using his theory of AI, dreams, mirrors and memory the prose is poetic, challenging, + letters to ex fiance, it is rewarding & heartbreaking that the state chose to destroy a man whose contribution to the war effort and science cannot be quantified. I will reread this bk as i feel i will benefit rdg again.

Im in 2 minds about this bk, i struggled at 1st to get into the stories of an author + his character which explore many of the issues that preoccupy modern society from racism and family to TV, celebrity and designer drugs. Definitely imaginative and very relevant but something didn't click for me. Once i felt it had a Vonnegut style i couldn't get away from that and also the rd trip from lolita. Still interesting as I've not rd rushdie 4 a bit.

This was a rdg grp selection for Oct + it certainly made for interesting reading. It is the story of lorena hickok, journalist and lover of Eleanor Roosevelt, from her childhood through to Eleanor's death in 62. The Roosevelt marriage was fascinating as i knew nothing about the couple beyond the basic history. I enjyd the bk itself + found parts such as lorena's early life absorbing & the portrait of a love affair told with sensitivity.

Second in series about police officer ben devlin who is investigating a murder of a young woman as well as the return to his town of an old criminal apparently intent on bringing to account the men responsible for his imprisonment.
A really enjoyable series with a convincing lead character who struggles with devotion to a job that threatens his family life with an interesting picture of life on the Irish border.

This is a book which drew me into the story of a Nigerian man Chinoso whose chance encountee with a woman who is about to throw herself of a bridge changes the course of life completely. I was captured by his trials and tribulations which are narrated by his igbo spirit who has visited many lives over centuries. I loved the folklore and culture and feel that if it won the booker it would show that the prize is not purely American/ British centric

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05ftsd3/episodes/downloads
I just listened to the first two in the 5 shortlisted stories which were completely different but great.
Anyway i thought I'd share the link as the winners and past nominated stories are worth listening to.

#booked2019 21newin2019
@Cinfhen @BarbaraTheBibliophage @4thhouseontheleft
#manbooker2019
My second of the shortlist and i have 2 others in reserve at library. Im halfway through and i am living every misfortune that falls upon poor Chinoso so this scene where a group of children mob him mistaking him for Ronaldinho and he then is overwhelmed by sadness just floored me.
So far i am enjoying it a lot.

A Norwegian cple married 40 yrs arrange a holiday in Italy for their family to celebrate the husbands 70th birthday but anounce instead their divorce. The bk then thru the eyes of their adult children explores the impact , with reflections on different memories, infertility, depression, sibing rivalries, and the complexity of relationships. This was a very readable book, told well, and with affection for her characters in difficult situations.

Gosh this was a tough rd with an unrelenting catalogue of dreadful atrocities which was inflicted upon the people of Mexico because of the drug wars. This bk however is compelling as dea agent art keller continues his battle against adnan berrara and the drug cartels. Shocking i put it down exhausted and with an ending that left me wondering where the next bk wd go. Plus an easter egg bk i plan to try. A tough read but impressive writing.

It's Friday night and i am now well into the second part of this impressive series of novels about the drug war on the Mexican /American border.
I am provisionally going to put this down for my first autumn #booked2019 'book about addiction' unless i read something else but gosh it is so good.

#readingenvysummerchallenge @ReadingEnvy
I suspect that i may not get many more in this challenge & it is getting a bit nippy now so a timely return to the louisiana swamps with a favourite detective seems apt. James lee burke describes the scenery and culture with skill whilst combining great plots. A film crew are in town, an old adversary now tough criminal, and a nasty killer. As Dave starts seeing soldiers in the mist can he sort it all out.

#booked2019 18-diverse middle grade
@BarbaraTheBibliophage @Cinfhen @4thhouseontheleft
An astonishing book sees me finish summer with a high and wishing books like this had existed when i was a teen. It reverses the race issue with the oppressed group noughts being white people. The bk focusses on callum a nought and sephy a cross & their love story amid a race struggle into which the families are drawn. A great book & im so glad i've now rd it.

#booked2019 ya diverse - A bk i haven't read but have always wanted to and was sat in tbr pile. So far im overwhelmed by the ideas + this quote ' But how many individuals does it take before it's not the individuals who are prejudiced but society itself? ' I will finish tomorrow but wonder why i haven't rd it b4 now. Not sure that YA label necessarily does favours to bks that shld be read by adults yet are incredibly important for yng readers.

#booked2019 13genrebusting
@Cinfhen @4thhouseontheleft @BarbaraTheBibliophage
Another bk that's been sat in a pile for some time and i think it qualifies as it's a police procedural with wizards and ghosts. It was a real romp which i enjoyed even though supernatural crime isn't normally my cup of tea. Despite owing a lot to harry p i think i will read more and certainly im glad i eventually picked it up.

#booked2019 17 'gifted to you'
The joy of this challenge so far is picking up books i have left languishing for years and finding a gem. This was a story set in the early 1980s in American heartland in a town decimated by the decline of traditional industry. The central character bill is a young reporter on the local paper who gets drawn into the disappearance of a local man and the seedier side of the community. Really interesting read.

My first of the booker longlist and absolutely loved this story of 12 women whose lives all are linked in various ways but predominantly by an African heritage. The diverse stories explore sexuality and race and i was totally absorbed by the individual tales which cover every facet of women's lives lived in all ways. It would take me pages to talk abt each individual portrait and I put this book down in awe of a brilliantly crafted book.

#booked2019
@4thhouseontheleft @Cinfhen @BarbaraTheBibliophage
17 book gifted to you
Home from our week away and back on the summer challenge using it as an opportunity to dig into the huge pile of unread books sitting unloved in the spare bedroom and i cdn't believe this was a present for my 40th birthday (aargh) in 2001!!! And so far really enjoying plus daughter arrived home today with this brill book mark with a bit of Berlin Wall attached.

my final hol book was a tom thorne and v readable it was as the grumpy detective investigates a crime which brings two skeletons from his past into the story. This series is getting better and better as was our second trip to the lyme regis micro brewery which was just around the corner. Apologies to jane austen fans as the weather was so bad today i couldn't get to the cob to photograph the infamous steps from persuasion so another trip required

Penultimate holiday read is the latest hill/Jordan story and they are easy read crime novels in which the formula is well established and the characters such that it's like putting an old sock on. This one finished on a bit of a cliffhanger and i know a new one is due so will have to read the next.
Our holiday rental has some great bookcases which included these agathas.

Another holiday read and i really enjoyed this noir feeling thriller. It definitely had that feel of b/w movies with definite nods to Barbara stanwyk in double indemnity or Kathleen turner in the 1980s. An investigator has to follow a woman on the run polly costello + in a delaware bar he gets more than he bargained for. A great page turner, perfect for a rainy summer holiday read. Can't wait to try more by the author.

I weigh my holidays on the number of books read so this 700 page monster which as 6th in the wonderful shardlake series has been sat on my shelf for a while due to its size + guess what I finished it really quickly as i was totally thrown back into his tudor world. Here Catherine parr asks for the lawyers help to find a piece of writing on religion that could have her head. Brilliant research about the period adds to the joy of these books.

I'd forgotten how readable this series was when i picked up the last book which sees lena and lila move towards their later years amidst deteriorating relationships, children, aging parents, career changes and most of all changes in their friendship. This has been a wonderful series and i was so sorry to finish but oh lila, lila, lila....

#readingenvysummerchallenge @ReadingEnvy I'm off this week and next and we are heading to lyme regis Saturday so as im the only one in the house on a Thursday afternoon i thought id combine something blue on cd player with something translated as i start again on the challenge ( i am loving being back in lena and lilas world for last time) with a Belgian beer my daughter bought back from interrail 12 months ago! Bliss 😁

Ibrahim mahama created this fascinating piece of art for manchester's Whitworth art gallery which uses reclaimed train seats and rescued objects to reflect on the colonial era. Called Parliament of ghosts i thought I'd share the images. Not sure if it will travel but id recommend it if u can get to see it. As many of my litsy pals njy translated and African fiction i felt i was transported to the pages of a book as i sat in these seats.

Once i had accepted the premise of this the 2nd murder squad story i was totally absorbed in great characters and plotting (although i did feel it owed a lot to the secret history). Tana french has created a great series which i look fwd to continuing and hope that the characters link up at some point as there are vague references back to rob from 'in the woods' but it is very much a unique book.

14 muslim author/character #booked2019 @4thhouseontheleft @BarbaraTheBibliophage @Cinfhen
It never ceases to amaze me how brave some writers are as they create prose that exposes the inequity of patriarchal and religiously dominated societies.this bk is the story of a woman on the eve of her execution telling the story,to a psychiatrist, of a lifetime of abuse by men. Based on the writer's own research it is a brutal story but very important.

Last week i had a busy week at work so i immersed myself in slowly reading the 4th harry bosch story as connelly's wonderfully irascible detective, suspended from duty, delves into a very personal historic crime. Perfect antidote to brain oveload.

I picked this from my shelves for #readingenvysummerchallenge @ReadingEnvy for something true and have put it down having read one of my books of the year but emotionally a wreck. The writer tells how as a 17 yr old her 16 yr old br is knocked down in a hit and run + is in a psv for 7 yrs b4 feeding id withdrawn after a crt hearing. Told with tenderness and visceral honesty it deals with grief, guilt, and loss and is heart breaking. A stunning bk.

I couldn't put this book down today as the author told two stories a century apart. In one set in 1901 a boer mother and child are interred in british concentration camps and treated as little more than animals. Then as apartheid changes into anc government a vulnerable yng man is sent to an extreme right wing training camp for young men. The book touches on race as well as family and is fascinating, well told, and absorbing.

With much thanks to @Centique + @ReadingEnvy for an incredible read which is definitely 5*. The story of 3 maori brothers who as part of the NZ regiment are deeply involved in the harrowing Italian front in ww2 was told from the perspective of yngr br Tu as a narrative of the war and a reflection on their early life for his niece and nephew. Capturing the voice of a soldier it is a wonderful book and I am so glad i could discover this author. 👇

#booked2019 @4thhouseontheleft @BarbaraTheBibliophage @Cinfhen
bk to movie -a film i saw when it came out @ cinema + loved but haven't seen since and picked this bk from tbr for the challenge. It is a moving story of childhood friendships and what war does to men. The honesty in a later chapter was moving as Al admits to fear whilst birdy has sunk into trauma induced illness. loved the bk despite a chapter that dog lovers shd avoid & 👇

I'd never heard of this book until @Centique and @ReadingEnvy disused it on jenny's podcast recently. I'll finish it tomorrow and review it but i keep reading bits i want to share and this stood out. It is an incredible story which captures the voice of a soldier experiencing horrors which seem alarmingly routine with astonishing skill.

#readingenvysummerchallenge @ReadingEnvy
Something translated from my tbr was Remarkably prescient in a speculative story about Dagestan imagining what cd happen if Russia built a wall dividing the 2 areas. In a culturally mixed country this sparks islamic radicalism. Told from a yng mans perspective it explores folk tales, poetry, and a proud history fighting ottoman and Soviet. A bk that had me confused but astonished at its brilliance.

5th in the series about a grp of washed up mi5 agents under the leadership of grotesque but brilliant Jackson lamb finds them investigating the attempted murder of one of their number whilst terrorist rocks the country. I love this series, very dark humour and cracking writing.
I couldn't resist my library's latest display and the obvious photo opportunity.

Final post of the night and apologies for the fruity language but mick herron is a brilliant writer of modern spy fiction. Within a few chapters i encountered two pieces of brilliant writing, one a stunning evocation of rain and the other simply had me laughing out loud. If you've not read the series id highly recommend.

2nd review is another genre i love, middle class English families in crisis and tessa Hadley does this style of book with skill. Here the sudden death of a man in his 50's triggers the story of two couples from the 1980's where they all meet until the present day. Galleries, wine, london apartments, affairs, difficult children general middle class tropes, it should make all my hackles rise but do you know what it's a secret pleasure ☺

Friday, phew, so after a busy week catching up on litsy, liking posts, and reviwing my weeks reading. I love relaxing into a page turning thriller and this series is perfect, in this book carter blake finds his past catching up with him with some nasty villains trying to eliminate him. And what's not to like about a fight in a train carriage!

Aaron falk may become a favourite detective, and whilst not battling with the Scandinavian cold, he certainly has personal demons to battle as well as big spiders as he returns to his childhood home for the funeral of the halder family killed at the hands of the father luke, aarons old friend. A cracking story which i couldn't put down.

How a young couple cope with 5 yrs enforced separation as roy is imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit created a tension as i was on one hand distraught at the injustice roy suffers and his loss of a life,whilst understanding the dilemma of his wife celestial. The book then reflects on ideas of feminine autonomy and pulled me left right and centre with my sympathies. An absorbing book which gave me much to reflect on after i put it down.

#booked2019 i looked at this list i uncertain abt graphic novel category but in the library i was drawn to this bk + loved the storytelling and the skill of the drawings. A simple tale about a hermit on a lighthouse who uses his dictionary to imagine the meaning in words, a fisherman in a small gesture engages with him. Definitely a genre i will try again and a bk that defied my knee jerk ideas.
@4thhouseontheleft @BarbaraTheBibliophage @Cinfhen

#booked2019 from top left clockwise, indigenous, musician, drink on cover social media, night, clifi.
I really enjoyed this spring challenge which combined 3 books sat on my shelves unloved for a while but were hits, two that I'd no knowledge of but were 5*, and the jon Ronson which was bit scary.
Thanks again for hosting, i hope to finish my 1st summer rd today @4thhouseontheleft @Cinfhen @BarbaraTheBibliophage

This book is definitely preaching to the converted but it's reassuring to read a voice that flys in the face of the current idea prevalent that the louder you shout without any supporting facts it will still be taken as true. Hence chapters on brexit, lgbtq rights, feminism, nanny state, trump et al as he pierces the right wing bubble. An absorbing easy enlightening read, but as i say it's probably not me who should be reading this book.

A book that slowly pulls you into the lives of people to the point that the final chapter i found v moving. This is a book that relishes the diversity of city life but doesnt shy away from the conflicts that brings due to intolerance as 3 friends and 2 adults tell their story against a background of the murder of a British soldier on a London Street + subsequent racist backlash echoes 2 other historic stories. I loved this so was sorry to finish.

#readingenvysummerchallenge Why did i leave it so long to read this wonderful story about the English fenland (definitely a place i want to visit). Mixing history of the area with an intimate story of a man, a teacher, from his childhood with his widower lock keeper father and damaged br as he explores sexual feelings to his later years as tragic events in those early yrs impact on his and his wife's life. Beautifully written and fascinating.

Review 2 today is a real life bk club selection + my 1st tim winton. Loved it, as we meet in the opening chapter a man living in a fremantle high rise who we know is in bad place, disgraced divorced drunk incontinent, who then meets a childhood friend with her grandson. The remaining absorbing story tells how his life changes with the interaction, and an ending which i think will make for an interesting discussion. Can't wait to rd more.

I seem to be saving reviews to do in one batch so this is 1st of 3 and 7th of the inspector van veeteren series. More grumpy scandi police drama and it's definitely a genre in which i feel totally at home, not sure what that says 😂 Anyway a road accident triggers a string of crimes which need investigating. Our hero still semi retired gets drawn in to the hunt for the criminal. Very satisfying.