The love lives of a pair of sisters put their sibling relationship to the test over the course of a steamy Sydney summer. Although there is plenty of 20 something angst, it‘s intelligently rendered & there are some interesting takes on self awareness & social/romantic manipulation. #ozfiction

#PersephoneClub

Here are my two suggestions for next year‘s February read. The first is tagged, I‘ll tag the second one in the comments.

I often think that time shifts are used in novels that don‘t have a strong enough story to sustain them without it, but that is not the case here. The history of these characters & their interactions would have worked fine with a straightforward timeline, but allowing the relevant pieces of the past to come out as the story in the present progressed intensified my understanding & sympathy for them. I really loved this one.

Northern Soul fanatics track down Bucky Bronco, the long forgotten (by everyone else) singer of some very rare singles, & fly him from his home in Chicago to Scarborough to perform at a festival. Suffering from jet lag, culture shock & opioid withdrawal & grieving his late wife, Bucky isn‘t what the fans expected & his story is truly heartbreaking. The English characters are doing it tough too, but there are glimmers of hope through the gloom.

An interesting and insightful exploration of the mental health world, particularly as it relates to psychopathy. I read this for my IRL book group in preparation for seeing Jon Ronson talking about it last night. He was an entertaining presenter, and having a couple of the people whose stories he told in the book joining in by Zoom on a big screen was inspired.

#10BeforeTheEnd

Halfway there!

I‘ve been hearing huge praise for this book for about 15 years so I think my reading experience suffered a bit from sky high expectations. But it is charming, with some lovely nature writing and the relationship between the little girl and her elderly grandmother is touching. Sophia Jansson‘s delightful afterword underlined the strength of the connection, both to the people and place. The photo is an outer island in the Stockholm archipelago.

I had a jolly good time with this book. What a hoot! I hope Mr Partridge finds his new flat mates as worthy of his stewardship as Lisbeth and Ronny🤣

#FurrowedMiddlebrowClub

#FurrowedMiddlebrowClub

Here are my suggestions for July.

It‘s back! #AussieSecretSanta is back for 2024.

Sharni is away so, with her approval, I have taken it on this year. I don‘t know what I‘m doing, but I will do my best.

Sign ups open until 20th November at:

https://forms.gle/eyeWVXPV6unMqjWa8 (I hope)

I will try to send matches on 21st November.

If you have an Australian postal address you are welcome to join the fun!

No wonder I wear reading glasses 🤣🤣🤣

#FurrowedMiddlebrowClub

Delightful! Up there with The Masqueraders as my favourite Heyer. Mr Beaumarisis definitely my favourite Heyer hero.

If this was a standard romance I would have been annoyed by the lack of communication being the sticking point between the lovers, but I‘m prepared to let that go here because I enjoyed all the musical references, the insiders knowledge of the music industry and the fun of guessing who inspired the characters. I‘m also wondering how many incidents were inspired by Susanna‘s real life experiences.

This is a direct sequel to The Satsuma Complex which I enjoyed very much. Unfortunately, Bob‘s shtick didn‘t work so well for me here. A smile or two, but no laughs and the story wasn‘t strong enough to make up for it. Not bad, but definitely disappointing.

I can‘t say I enjoyed this. It‘s a sad little story populated with unhappy, unlikeable characters. Even though I felt sorry for Therese, who everyone treated so badly, I found her hard to like, mostly because the author kept telling me she was charmless. I was surprised at how much the author claimed to have enjoyed her experiences in India - I didn‘t feel any of that from the descriptions in the book.
#PersephoneClub
2nd down for #10BeforeTheEnd

Although this is billed as a romcom I didn‘t find it at all funny, but I also didn‘t feel like it was trying to be. Rather it was a romance with a bit more substance than most and, as the author says in her acknowledgment, “something of a love letter to bookshops and bookselling”. Most enjoyable. #ozfiction

First one down for #10BeforeTheEnd

I‘m jumping on the #10BeforeTheEnd train. I need some encouragement to get these books read!

Thanks for such a great idea @ChaoticMissAdventures

I‘m a fan of Steven Carroll‘s Eliot Quartet and I really wanted to like this book which features a character introduced in the 4th of that series, but, although I enjoyed his writing as much as ever, I was left wondering what this story was actually about. I know I‘m not at my sharpest right now so I may have to try this one again one day.
#ozfiction

A young woman of fragile mental health suffers a crisis & is admitted to a psychiatric ward where she gradually recovers. This is a difficult book to rate because it doesn't really have much by way of characters or plot & the writing is very ordinary but I think its first person narration is effective in communicating the experience of a mental health crisis. #ozfiction

I thoroughly enjoyed that romp through one woman‘s WWII experiences and I appreciated the “jolly hockey sticks” tone. It may seem flippant to present war time like that, but I think it was representative of the way the British, particularly Londoners, maintained morale on the home front both during the war & in its aftermath. The descriptions of air raids were very evocative, I almost felt like I was there.

#FurrowedMiddlebrowClub

A quick, fun read. Not as strong as the Thursday Murder Club series, but entertaining nonetheless.

What an absolute joy! I loved it. I loved the way it played with the tropes and conventions of fictional crime as rendered by the British and I loved the returning characters, of course, but what I loved most were all the little asides - the nods and winks at so many things real and fictional. I snort-laughed at “the Milton‘s were very much not a racist family”.

I‘ve been absent & not reading much over the last few months. Glad to be back now😊

Well, this wasn‘t the fun adventure I was expecting. It was all rather grim really. Poor Susan! No wonder she went on strike. I‘d like to think there was a little subversive intention behind the way that turned out, but probably not😆
I was glad to see the dastardly DV thwarted and I hope the Pearls got more than warm thanks. Had anyone heard of a hay-box or Solomon‘s rabbit cooking method?

#PersephoneClub

I enjoyed the first part of this one, got a bit bored through the middle section, then started enjoying it again towards the end. It was a good choice for #CampLitsy24 I loved reading all the campers‘ takes on it. Thanks camp leaders!

Fascinating overview of the history of Scandinavia from the Vikings to the present day. There was an awful lot I knew nothing about. A great preparation for my trip to Denmark and Sweden which starts on Saturday 🛫🇩🇰🇸🇪

Some fun elements in the set up of the con, but the romantic angst was a bit too contrived for my taste. A low pick.

Not a bad romance objectively, but not my cup of tea. The heroine-in-danger trope is rarely a winner for me and I didn‘t like the hero‘s attitude in this one either.

In response to the New York Times list, Readings bookshop got appropriate people to nominate their favourite Australian books of this century and compiled a top 30. Here's the first 10.

https://www.readings.com.au/news/best-australian-books-of-the-21st-century

This has been my handbag book for the last few weeks. Bull Durham is one of my favourite films. Sheldon‘s background as a minor league baseball player was really interesting, and so was his description of the process of making the film, but what I most enjoyed was the insight into how and why he wrote it in the first place.

I used to enjoy L A Witt‘s books, but the more recent ones haven‘t done it for me. I feel like she‘s not trying with the character development - there‘s just a lot of repetitive blather about whatever angst she‘s ascribed to them - so the romance falls flat. I went back and reread an early one - it‘s not just my recent mood. I‘ve bailed on the last few I‘ve read and not bothered with a review. I think I‘ll pass on her in future. Not in database.

Ugh!

I‘m retitling this one Diary of a Narcissist. What an insufferable, self obsessed pain in the neck she was from beginning to end. Maybe I‘m missing something, but most of her inner monologue seemed to me to be just a load of pretentious twaddle.

I‘m looking forward to the discussion.

#CampLitsy24

#FurrowedMiddlebrowClub

Not much story, but what an entertaining collection of characters! I loved Harriet & her Aunt Finch (I could just imagine Aunt Finch as a Suffragette, yelling slogans while chained to the railings at the Palace of Westminster😆) & I liked Robert for seeing her charms. The interactions between Mrs Prentice and Mrs Minnis were a hoot, but as for the Popes… oh dear.

#ReadYourKindle list for July. Thanks Cydney😘

#BookReport

Lots of comfort reading in June. It‘s hard to pick a favourite. The Sweet Dove Died or The Masqueraders, I think.

Well, I adored this! So much fun. My favourite Heyer so far. Thank you again @LeahBergen for the gift of this book.

Delightful! I loved Valency and Barney and hated the appalling Stirlings. The descriptions of the landscape were sublime. Thank you to @LeahBergen for the gift of the book and to @thegirlwiththelibrarybag for reminding me to read it.

I wouldn‘t have thought it possible to set a convincing romance against the background of a bunch of civil servants trying to get a piece of legislation through the House of Lords, but this lovely novella proved me quite wrong. It also gave me a little bit of PTSD from the pressures and frustrations of my time doing that kind of work. And I just loved that it described one of the MCs as a “policy wonk” 😆
Not in the database ☹️
#ReadYourKindle

I love an m/m sports romance - this trilogy delivered plenty of warm & fuzzies with a touch of spice plus I learned a lot about baseball. Rather than the usual stories about stars & their successes, these are about the players on the fringes of the big league & their struggles with injuries, form slumps, the uncertainty of being traded or sent down to the minors & the resultant mental health issues. Better writing than your average romance too.

So sweet and charming. It evoked memories of my newlywed days, although I don‘t think I was ever quite such a goose as Felicity or my husband as ineffectual as Ian, and of our first house where we were very happily childless for a lot longer than the first year! But I can‘t imagine how we managed without a cook and a maid🤣🤣🤣

#PersephoneClub

This is an extraordinarily atmospheric book. The writing was unobtrusive but incredibly effective -I felt the primness of the place and time, the harshness of the weather, the rugged emptiness of the landscape, the rough expanse of the sea and the claustrophobic interiors. The story was simple but engaging and offered plenty to think about. Thanks to the #CampLitsy24 hosts and participants for the discussions which added to my enjoyment.

Barbara Pym joins the permissive society😳 No anthropologists, Anglicans or excellent women in this one, and the entanglements between the characters are as much sexual as romantic. Pym‘s wit is as entertaining as ever, but I have to take issue with her on one point. “Books as presents were somehow lacking in excitement and romance.” What rot!

How could I resist adding this bag to my #bookhaul?

#BookReport for May.

Edenglassie and Caledonian Road are my favourites for the month, and possibly for the year so far.

#ReadYourKindle list for June. I‘ll go look at the numbers drawn now🙂 Thanks Cydney.

I‘ve been out of action for a few days so coming in late with these end of month posts.

Very slow burn m/m hockey romance that was most enjoyable for the soul baring and supportive group chats between the players. I‘d love to believe that a bunch of hockey bros had conversations like these but something tells me it‘s not very likely. And I claim I don‘t read fantasy😉😆

This final book in the trilogy was just as enjoyable as the first 2. This time the romance was set against the background of rehearsals for a play about the relationship between Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen. I enjoyed the glimpse of backstage life and I wish the play was real because I would love to see it. I hope these 2 authors will write together again sometime.
#ReadYourKindle

Explores the developing relationship between 2 men in their 50s, largely through the lens of their previous significant relationships & their interactions with others. Tsioklas‘s writing is not for those with delicate sensibilities, he is brutal with his characters‘ psychologies & seems to glory in their animal essence, particularly their smells. My favourite part of the book was a dinner party argument covering a lot of topical issues. A low pick

1. Caught up with a friend from out of town
2. Finally got rid of a cold
3. IRL book group
4. Play-off hockey
5. Dinner at my favourite restaurant with my husband and daughter

#5JoySFriday

Thanks for the tag @DebinHawaii

This has been my handbag book for the last few weeks & I‘ve enjoyed it in a quite a few places. It took me a little while to warm up to Waldo, but I loved Ancilla from the start and I got plenty of laughs from the dreadful Tiffany. Among my favourite Heyer‘s so far @mabell @willaful

A young female thief, on the run from a former ally, thinks she has found safety with an antiques dealer in the Adelaide Hills, but she‘s not the only one who is hiding from her past. A multi stranded caper/thriller story with a lot of South Australian local references and some eye opening details about operating scams. Most enjoyable. #ozfiction