Some people HAVE to finish every single book they start. I'm looking at Mr Books here! I used to be like that, but that was before I started working in a bookshop. In fact, I can think of only two books I bailed on pre-bookshop. One was Gillian Mears' Grass Sister, which was given to … Continue reading #MiniReviews – the DNF edition
Sherlock Holmes took his bottle from the corner of the mantlepiece, and his hypodermic syringe from its neat morocca-case. The Sign of the Four was my latest lucky spin for the Classics Club and my second Sherlock Holmes story. There's not a lot to be said about another Sherlock Holmes story that hasn't already been … Continue reading The Sign of the Four | Arthur Conan Doyle #CCspin
As always when he returned home at night, Maigret paused at the same place, just past the gas lamp, and looked up at the lit windows of his apartment. Every July since 2017, there has been one rainy, cold, miserable weekend that becomes my Maigret weekend. This past weekend was it! There is nothing sweeter … Continue reading Maigret and the Minister | Georges Simenon #ParisinJuly
Some images you record unconsciously, with the precision of a camera, and when you find them later in your memory, sometimes you rack your brains to recall where you saw them. Maigret Goes to School is my ninth Maigret. I'm well and truly hooked! This story sees Maigret leave Paris to help out with a … Continue reading Maigret Goes to School | Georges Simenon #ParisinJuly
Chapter 1: How Edith Campbell Berry Ate Six Courses and Practised the Seven Ways in the Dining Car on the Train from Paris to GenevaOn the train from Paris to Geneva, Edith Campbell Berry, at twenty-six, having heard the gong, made her way to the first sitting and her first lunch in a railway dining … Continue reading Grand Days | Frank Moorhouse #EdithReadalong
The President of the Chamber remained standing until the faint stir caused by his entry subsided. Then he took his seat, saying rather nonchalantly, in a quiet voice:'The sitting is open.' As always, I am facsinated by translation choices. Above are the opening lines from Brian Nelson's recent 2018 translation of Son Excellence Eugène Rougon, … Continue reading Son Excellence Eugène Rougon | Émile Zola #Zoladdiction
182 years ago today, Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola was born in Paris and for the past nine years, Fanda @Classiclit has hosted Zoladdiction throughout April. I joined in the first two with the only Zola's on my TBR pile - Germinal (1885) and Nana (1880). At that point I didn't really understand how the whole Rougon-Macquart thing … Continue reading Zoladdiction 2022
I would like to say a few things about my first husband, William. Laura Linney played Lucy Barton in a one woman show, first in London, then on Broadway. A comment during rehearsal one day about William (Lucy's first husband), made Elizabeth Strout realise that William had his own story. I'd love to know what … Continue reading Oh William! | Elizabeth Strout #USAfiction
Miriam left the gaslit hall and went slowly upstairs. In my very first spur-of-the-moment bookish decision of 2022, I decided to join in #PilgrimageTogether. It popped up on my Twitter radar at the end of last year. It's aim, to read all thirteen novels in the Pilgrimage series written by Dorothy M. Richardson. My aim … Continue reading Pointed Roofs | Dorothy Richardson #Readalong
Tommy Guptill had once owned a dairy farm, which he'd inherited from his father, and which was about two miles from the town of Amgash, Illinois. Oh my, the good folk of Amgash, Illinois are an unhappy bunch. Thank goodness it is a fictional town! Poverty, illness, domestic abuse, divorce, PTSD, secrets and affairs are … Continue reading Anything Is Possible | Elizabeth Strout #USAfiction
There was a time, and it was many years ago now, when I had to stay in hospital for almost nine weeks. When planning my summer holiday reading, I wanted a mix of books. I wanted short stories, I wanted some Australian authors, particularly Gen IV Australian Women Writers, I wanted a Japanese book, a … Continue reading My Name is Lucy Barton | Elizabeth Strout #USAfiction
*Spoiler alert* 'But I put it to you, my lord, that prize-money is of essential importance to the navy. The possibility o, however remote, of making a fortune by some brilliant stroke is an unparalleled spur to the diligence, the activity, and the unremitting attention of every man afloat.' So says Sir Joseph Blaine, the … Continue reading HMS Surprise | Patrick O’Brian #Readalong
"Well done." Perveen Mistry spoke aloud as she slid the signed contracts into envelopes. The Bombay Prince is the third book in Sujata Massey's Perveen Mistry Murder Mystery series. Although the Australian cover declares the series as a murder mystery, Allen & Unwin classify it on their website under historical fiction (you can also read … Continue reading The Bombay Prince | Sujata Massey #INDcosycrime
Émile Zola: A Very Short Introduction is part of the very excellent Oxford University Press Very Short Introduction series. There are over 700 titles in the series covering everything from author biographies, religions and philosophers, medicine and health topics, periods of history, cultural and social issues, to science and maths. If you're on the brink … Continue reading Émile Zola: A Very Short Introduction | Brian Nelson #LiteraryCompanion
Perveeen Mistry sighed, adjusting her hat on her sweating brow. The Satapur Moonstone is book two in the Perveen Mistry series set in India in the 1920's. Whilst book one felt rather undercooked (my own little in-joke as I included a recipe in my response to The Widows of Malabar Hill), book two is far … Continue reading The Satapur Moonstone | Sujata Massey #INDcosycrime
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