When I was a teenager and first allowed to come to town on my own I often used to find myself down on the river front on the beautiful memorial to merchant seaman who died during WW2 where I‘d daydream and read (I wasn‘t what you‘d call a cool kid!) . Sneaky day off and home for the weekend I tried today and it‘s much windier and busier than I remember!

Less a retelling and more of an expansion of the story this was incredibly dark and yet compelling. In this reimagining lady Macbeth is a new bride, perhaps witch touched from Brittany arriving in dark Alba and seeing the starkness of the court and the violence and ambition of her new, cruel husband. There was much in this that was not for me but it was really well told and captures the darkness and fear of the original well.

Sorry @dabbe and the whole #haiku gang but life has been a v tough mix of sickness, commitments, work and house renovations and I am not quite holding it together so not been super active and unlikely to be for a while !

I thought I was going to love this initially - softly written but embedded in quiet thoughtful characterisation and an incredibly strong sense of place but in the end this little story of faith and what it means to believe and to ‘see‘ a vision felt a little flat. A low pick

I have been a huge fan of a poet on instagram called Lucas Jones for ages - he writes and performs powerfully and is a powerful and passionate voice for women‘s safety and rights, holds his mirror up to toxic masculinity & mental health issues. I just treated myself to a book of his poems from his own website and am trying not to gobble (not an isbn in sight!) this is one of my favourites - so many layers .

Not my favourite of hers. Great ensemble but missing trigger warnings all over the place and a little too trite and predictable. also I have apparently read this before and I remember it not even a tiny bit! I did however appreciate some of the great food descriptions in this one

Lovely afternoon at the. National theatre seeing michael sheen in Nye. Excellent stuff. @dabbe
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There is a customary style from Jodi Taylor here, a confidence that whatever slightly odd thing is happening on the page it‘s well thought through and going to be fine and as such it was an engaging read. Missing for me however was a real strong MC Elizabeth Cage I despite her interesting skills seems bland and not all that easy torture for. That said I am sure i will keep reading !

Popping back up with my sporadic additions! #haikuhive @dabbe
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Whilst I didn‘t always love Lauren and Ryan I did find this story of when marriage gets hard really interesting. When they decided to split up for 12 months as an easier option than counselling I could have screamed but did end up enjoying some of the realisations that come with how marriages can become stale and hard. I also loved Lauren‘s family and would love to hear about how they get on

Last week I took myself off on an photography course to try intentional camera movement. It was so fun to run away from real life and try something new and for the simple pleasure of trying new things I wrote this one . And share this photo from my day … @dabbe
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I had Friday off work so it‘s quite greedy to want Monday off … and yet ! We don‘t get many nights where you can still be outside at 10 pm so I am taking this one @dabbe
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Other than a slightly rushed ending this was a phenomenal read and I feel a bit silly it‘s been sitting on the shelf for so long. I loved Sashi, a complex min character growing up as her future is radically changed by the beginning of the Sri Lankan civil war as she walks the complex line in an ever changing set of circumstances . A story about family, loyalty, truth I loved this one

I have had a lot of train revel in the last 24 hours and my hopes for peaceful reading time did not go quite as planned! @dabbe
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another great turn out for Stone and her team which for this outing includes Frost the annoying yet principled journalist. A really interesting case that really gives room for everyone to do their best work, puzzles, data, intuition and more. A great return to form

I have always considered myself well read and connected and with my history degree aware of the politics of what is reported and what is not. For all of that I find in this time of connectedness it seems harder to find the things that matter @dabbe @Susanita
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@dabbe
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@Reggie
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@TheSpineView
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@AnnCrystal
How was your morning?! #haikuaday #haikuhive

This was interesting. British Colonel and his wife in post WW2 Hamburg. Lewis - strongly of the view that reconstitution is going to need kindness more than strong arms agreed to share his requisitioned home with its owners a widower and his angry 15 year old daughter. The set up was fascinating and I appreciated the colour of both Hamburg and the period but found the characters quite flat. There were other perspectives I would have liked to see

What‘s the collective noun for haikus - bashed these off today reflecting on the longest day of the year with thanks to @eggs for the prompt! @Mimi28
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This was an interesting read on a couple of layers. One, it‘s a satisfying twisty novel about a wealthy woman in her later 40s meeting a younger widower and being swept off her feet. But secondly it‘s also quite interesting on being childless in your 40s and what that alongside being single does to how the world, even your closest friends see you and how easy it can be to be manipulated.

@dabbe
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@julieclair
@AnnCrystal

@dabbe
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@Mimi28
@TheBookHippie
@JenlovesJT47 I think I might have needed some punctuation here!
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A #oldlangsspine from @BennettBookworm I really liked this. Yea there is an actual plane load of characters but all were different and well written. A fascinating story about a lady who predicts age and reason for death for her fellow travellers it was a great exploration of fate and human responses to fear. I loved the main character but all the others and the sense of interconnect was also great

Have probably read this kind of story begore - I‘ve certainly seen the film but it‘s still well done. Ex teen tv star trying to make it as a producer teams up with her meet cute turned work enemy to try and get a film green lighted. To do so requires retuning to his home town, hanging out with his family and learning the truth of true love. Main character is both self aware and oblivious but that aside it was a fun pool side summer read

And the book I picked off the kindle! This was a pleasing closure to this trilogy about a FBI forensic linguist and her complex and unusual sisters. I would have liked a bit more of her linguist speciality which was such an interesting part of the earlier books but it was still a speedy and satisfying twisty read

I am away for a few days for a@family@members destination wedding !

@Kristy_K
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@AnnCrystal @dabbe

A book about books and an authors memoirs in one. So to know Susan Hill is very set in her views (doesn‘t like to travel, doesn‘t get Australian novels!) and this can be frustrating. So too is some of the quite chronic name dropping of the good and great of late 20th century literature. BUT she has a wonderful turn of phrase and clearly loves deep and round reading. I wrote down multiple recommendations and respected her perspective for that !

#haikuhive #haikuaday is a really interesting way to think about what‘s going on and how I am feeling

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@AnnCrystal

Sometimes knowing what decision to make is hard #haikuhive

@kristy_k
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@reggie
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@eggs
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@thespineview
@CBee
@lil1inblue
@julieclair
@AnnCrystal

#haikuhive

@kristy_k
@debinhawaii
@mimi28
@thebookhippie
@jenlovesjt47
@reggie
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@eggs
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@CBee
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@AnnCrystal

#haikuhive #haikuaday gosh I made it to three days in a row. #@dabbe @Kristy_K @DebinHawaii @Mimi28 @TheBookHippie @JenlovesJT47 @Reggie @vivastory @Eggs @jdiehr @TheSpineView @CBee @lil1inblue @julieclair @AnnCrystal @bellabella @BooksandCoffee4Me @Jari-chan

#haikuadag #haikuhive trying to post every day - at least for this week. What I can say feeling poorly on your birthday really does bring feelings ! Apologies I think I tagged everyone. Joining this party late so not sure of all the rules !

Oh wow, I am almost glad to be poorly as it‘s let me curl up and mere myself in this. A murder mystery tols@over many many years it‘s really more of a character study and it‘s just wonderful.

I am not sure the rules of the #haikuhjve but I have been enjoying them and today feeling sorry for myself and well dosed on cold medicine I have one of my own to add !

The kind of horror I can cope with! This was at times just a bit bonkers but I actually really enjoyed the story of the adult siblings regrouping to sell their parents house and unearthing generational trauma along the way. A blame it on Litsy from when it was first published I finally picked up on my indie bookshop crawl at the end of last year

Gosh his would be a great, divide the crowd book club book. Framed as a story of a missing girl as told by a chorus of her near peers and written as ‘we‘ alternating with stories from their future it‘s a haunting kind of a book. I loved the muggy Florida backdrop, the deeply intense early teen years portrayed with all their raw energy. I liked less the deeply disheartening future stories and the vague horror type vibe and the abrupt ending

This is a format I like - 4 stand alone stories all touching on the life of Jesus, his mother, a friend, the Cheif Priest and Barabas. All were excellently written and imminently quotable but I am not quite sure what the author was trying to say. Part of the message is the power of story and the line between truth and fiction but at times it felt like the aim was to simply be provocative. An interesting read

Not played in ages @Eggs but joining in today 1. I quite like my own name as both a long and short version Joanne and Jo as an androgynous shortened version. and therefore would tend towards the same like Alex or Sam or Charlotte / Charley 2. As a child I had rabbits with very descriptive names twitch, cheeky, grey boy etc. imagination not a core strength! 3. I don‘t know about favourite but Verica Salt is to me one of the best accurate names!

DNF - I rarely do this but it‘s taken me three weeks to get to page 240 and picking it up gives me a moment of dread. It‘s beautifully written I just haven‘t a clue as to what is going on and frankly everyone seems really awful. I think a good example of a probably great book but not for me. Not right now. Off to find something I do fancy for this bank holiday Monday

I found this haunting. There is something about the authors use of language that mimics the ‘for the ages‘ style of the original works whilst bringing fresh perspectives and an almost practical infuse telling. In this one our narrator is slave to Cassandra sailing home with Agamemnon who is mostly secondary to the story of his waiting wife and family. The horror of their home, ghosts of slaughtered and canabilised children adds tension .& horror.

the Walsh sisters were regular reads in my 20s & I found them lovable, chaotic & both relatable & very far away from my only child efforts at early adulthood. Picking back up now was confused. At its best - highly relatable, refreshing, age appropriate storylines, great sense of place and zingy one liners. Less positively it was oddly paced,bogged down by a huge character & struggling to define its In characters and their relationships.

This was not quite what I expected (the hype passed me right by). Phoebe, desperately sad and struggling inadvertently crashes a week long wedding and through the connection she makes finds new purpose. I loved some of her relationships and conversations with the wedding people but felt less invested in the overall story. I think the cast of characters was strong and would happily have read more about any of them

This book has left me stumped. I don‘t quite know whether it is steampunk / fantasy / eco warning or horror and I was left vaguely dissatisfied. The writing especially the descriptions of the ‘wastelands‘ was stunning and the sense of place on the train hurtling then creating through this otherworldly was great but the characters were a little two dimensional for me and following several split rather than added to a sense of what was happening!

Have I spent half the day doing a bookshop crawl around Boston - yes I have ! Finished here and loved the shelf of Persephone titles. It was lovely to see each of the 4 shops I went to so full .. people reading, sharing titles and in all sharing their love of books with in well stocked children‘s sections. It was good for the soul (if not for my legs which are feeling every one of my 18,000 steps

1. I am away for work so no planning, prepping or cooking dinner!
2. The coach driver outside my hotel this morning reading a doorstop of a book while waiting for his passengers
3. Sunshine setting on the river
4. Being able to stock up on my favourite makeup brand. Please come to the UK Merit!
5. No alarm for the morning ! @DebinHawaii #5joysFriday

A low pick for me. Loved the sense of place especially the power of the river and the insight into history that I just don‘t know anything about -
Sudan in the mid 1800s (yes I am still making my way through #readingafrica2022 😆) but overall I found the story from multiple perspectives hard to keep up with and there was a really sad futility in much of the war and loss of identify. The main love story also confused me!

Been to see my mum for the weekend and just missed train back to London - enjoying some sunshine and hoping the signalling issue that has incomings now delayed is sorted soon!

On paper this should have been right up my alley - at marys‘s style writing and the recall of the knights of the round table to help save the realm. Plenty of in jokes, nods to the myths and general shenanigans ensue. And yet for that I found it a bit too full - I would have enjoyed the myth bits on their own, ditto the strong eco-warming and female strengths but all together it read a bit like all the books the author wanted to write

Gosh this is a quite remarkable read. It contains some things that I don‘t like - age differences in relationships inc a child bride (of its time but still not what I want to read about) and an almost distant story telling with very abrupt changes in main character and focus. It was a spiralling family saga - at its heart about love for each other and love for home even as both things change and evolve. The love for the land comes clear ⬇️

My first 5* of the year. This was a fabulous multi layered story - yes there is the love and bond of the 3 sisters and the pain and trauma of a difficult family history, then there is a world of female oppression, the witchcraft, the love of stories and words and all of it done against a clever historical backdrop that acknowledges the racism of the suffrage movement. The power of women, of words and of wanting was powerful stuff this IWD