It’s been a weird month – Easter holidays (yay!) so lots of reading, followed by a school inspection (not so yay!) and no reading.
This month, I read 10 books – which puts me at 40/120 on my Goodreads Challenge. Exactly on target but not exactly racing through the reads…
All my reads this month were three or four stars – a good month. Keep reading to see what books I enjoyed in April and what I plan for May.
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April Wrap-Up
I started the month by finishing my audiobook of ‘How to be a Victorian’ by Ruth Goodman (read by Patience Tomlinson). Regular readers here know that the Victorian era is one of my obsessions, so I found this an interesting jaunt through what it was like to live in the 19th century. Goodman, a social historian, has spent a lot of time trying out Victorian ways of life and this book collects some of her learnings.
Then I read ‘Little Sister’ by Gytha Lodge for a blog tour. This is the latest in the series featuring DCI Jonah Sheens and centres on a missing girl – one whose sister seems to know her whereabouts but has a harrowing tale to tell before she answers police questions. My review is here.
Book three of the month was ‘Reel History: The World According to the Movies’ by Alex Von Tunzelmann which is a thoroughly entertaining look at how films have got history right – and so shamefully, hilariously wrong! I devoured this one, even though I hadn’t seen all the films by a long way – now I definitely know which ones to avoid. Von Tunzelmann is a knowledgeable and funny guide – I’d definitely look for more books by her.
Next was an audiobook of ‘A Marvellous Light’ by Freya Marske which is the one book that I think I was a bit mean on my star rating for – I gave it 4, but it is the one that has stuck with me since I read it. It’s the story of an underground magical society in Edwardian England accompanied by a gorgeously angsty gay romance – my review is here.
Still powering my way through books during my Easter holidays, I read ‘The Trials of Lotta Rae’ by Siobhan MacGowan on Pigeonhole (totally new to me, but a shared reading experience I enjoyed). This was a really sad story that I haven’t yet found the words to review – it focuses on the rape of a working class woman by a higher class man in early 20th century London and Lotta’s situation is genuinely both tragic and rage-inducing.
Then I read ‘Lessons in Chemistry’ by Bonnie Garmus, another book in which women are treated badly but this time in 1960s America! The heroine here, Elizabeth Zott, is an amazing scientist who unwittingly ends up fronting a TV cookery show. I loved the humour and the characterisation – my review is here.
Following this was another Pigeonhole read, ‘No Less The Devil’ by Stuart MacBride and I’ll admit it wasn’t what I expected. While I absolutely loved the police procedural elements, the humour and the clever plotting, the end got a bit offbeat for me – my review is here.
Next was ‘It Ends at Midnight’ by Harriet Tyce, an enjoyable thriller about events leading up to a very eventful Hogmanay party! I liked the slow reveal and the twists and turns – my review will be up on the blog soon.
At this point, life got really busy and I retreated back to the audiobooks to give my eyes a rest! I enjoyed ‘No One Round Here Reads Tolstoy’ by Mark Hodkinson, a memoir about a working-class life in books by a (now) writer and independent publisher. I loved following Hodkinson’s story as he realised that books were so important to him and developed his own tastes – there were definitely echoes of my own experiences in there, although we 100% feel differently about Morrissey (sorry!)
Finally, I listened to ‘Mortmain Hall’ by Martin Edwards which I enjoyed, although I did find the audiobook hard to follow at times. Maybe I was just really tired, but I’d have definitely appreciated a quick cast list somewhere! This is a clever mystery in the Agatha Christie vein – think 1930s, a gathering at a country estate, lots of secrets and hidden pasts and some genuinely surprising twists along the way. The final scenes of the book were absolutely brilliant for bringing all the plot strands together – and packed with tension. I just wish that I’d realised this was the second book in the series as I think I’d have enjoyed it more with some back-story to the elusive heiress at the centre of investigations, Rachel Savernake.
May TBR
I managed to read five of the nine books I planned for May (last month’s wrap-up and TBR here). Not great, but not awful!
I’m still reading ‘The Slow Road to Tehran’ by Rebecca Lowe and am loving her solo cycling tour through Europe and the Middle East. I have learnt absolutely tonnes already about a load of places I knew embarrassingly little about – and it’s all written so engagingly with an eye for a humorous anecdote.
Sticking with non-fiction, I’ve got my eye on ‘Portable Magic: A History of Books and their Readers’ by Emma Smith. I loved Smith’s book on Shakespeare and am very much looking forward to this book about books.
In the realm of my beloved historical fiction, I’m aiming to read ‘Pandora’ by Susan Stokes-Chapman because Georgian London and mysterious Greek antiquities sound right up my street! I also want to read ‘Sister Stardust’ by Jane Green for a blog tour (1960s Marrakesh won me over here!) and ‘A Lady’s Guide to Fortune Hunting’ by Sophie Irwin which sounds sassy and witty and fun!
My month wouldn’t be complete without some great crime fiction – and I’ve got ‘Bad for Good’ by Graham Bartlett lined up for a blog tour, as well as Cara Hunter‘s new novel, ‘Hope to Die’ on NetGalley.
Finally, I have two more blog tours this month – ‘The Birdcage’ by Eve Chase and ‘Adult Assembly Required’ by Abbi Waxman (sequel to ‘The Bookish Life of Nina Hill’). These look fabulous in very different ways – one brooding and mysterious, the other funny and (hopefully) upbeat!
So there we have it! An OK reading month and an optimistic May TBR. Join me back here next month when I admit just how off-piste I went with my reading…
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Ten books read is great! A nice round number. I read only 7 but at least there were some good ones in it.
I love Ruth Goodman! Have you seen her Victorian Farm TV series too?
Not a bad reading month! I do want to read Adult Assembly Required.