Michael Farris Smith Archives - The Quick and the Read

How I Choose My TBR

As a life-long bookworm, I’ve made it my mission to read ALL THE BOOKS.

Everything I liked the sound of – added to the TBR. Recommended by someone I trust – added to the TBR. Interesting cover – added to the TBR.

You get the picture – a love of books and an endless TBR.

However, I do (kind of) accept that I cannot read every book.

In fact, my journey into blogging has really made me focus on the elements of books that I really love. I’ve had to really think before I request yet more books – and there are definitely things that tick the boxes for me.

So here we go – an insight into my muddled mind and the TBR that I am desperately trying to tame… I love all these things independently but where they combine is pure magic!

(Disclaimer:  I still reserve the right to read randomly and at whim - that's one of the true pleasure of reading!)

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WWW Wednesday – 10th March, 2021

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted at Taking on a World of Words. Anyone can take part and it is a great way of sharing what you have just finished reading, what you are currently reading and what is next on the TBR.

Links are provided for books mentioned – thanks for supporting my blog with any purchases (at no extra cost to you!)

What have you recently finished reading?

It’s been two weeks since my last WWW Wednesday post, but you can read my February Wrap-Up here.

This looks like loads, but it is 2 weeks and a lot of finishing the last section of books!

I finished ‘Paris by Starlight’ by Robert Dinsdale with my Tsundoku Squad lovelies. This is a beautifully-imagines tale of refugees bringing their old country magic to Paris (where they aren’t exactly welcomed). The writing is lovely, but I found the pace a little slow for my tastes.

My other buddy read for February (with The Write Reads group) was ‘Cemetery Boys’ by Aiden Thomas, a Latinx tale centred around a trans boy in Los Angeles who wants to join his family in being able to release the dead into the afterlife. I found the setting of this one really engaging – I didn’t know much about beliefs around Day of the Dead before this and it is a clever setting for the story. I liked the main characters and did enjoy reading along and discussing the novel. Once the action picked up, I did really like this book – although the first part was a little meandering and it wasn’t clear where it was headed.

Since my last update, I also read ‘Nick’ by Michael Farris Smith for a blog tour – you can read my review here. This one was a hit for me based on the excellent settings – the trenches of World War I, wartime Paris and post-war New Orleans. I found myself carried along by the story created for Nick Carraway, who (after the events of ‘Nick’) finds himself in West Egg at the end of the novel and about to embark on the events in F Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby’. I’d recommend reading this if you like engaging historical fiction – the literary connection to Gatsby is a bonus.

I also read ‘Behind Closed Doors’ by Catherine Alliott for a blog tour – you can read my review here. This was a departure from what I expect from Alliott’s novels – it was a much darker story about a marriage that seems perfect on the surface and what happens when it ends. The mix of genres surprised me – there are elements of romance, as you might expect, but also something much grittier and with higher stakes – but I did enjoy it.

Another blog tour read was ‘The Three Locks’ by Bonnie MacBird. This is the fourth in a series of new Sherlock Holmes novels and I absolutely loved it. I haven’t read the previous books in the series, although I’ve since bought them. This is a twisty tale of a locked box, a missing girl, the world of Cambridge academia, warring magicians and a whole lot more. I raced through this in two sittings and can recommend it – my review will follow later in the month.

Then I read a short book – ‘Sex and the City of Ladies: Rewriting History with Cleopatra, Lucrezia Borgia and Catherine the Great’ by Lisa Hilton. I’d previously only read Hilton’s thrillers, but knew that she also wrote academic books and was intrigued by this short volume printed by the TLS. At about 80 pages, it discusses the way that the three named women are portrayed throughout history and the notoriety that surrounds them – often for doing the same things as their male counterparts who haven’t caused such a stir! It was an interesting read.

Finally, I finished the audiobook of ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ by Douglas Adams (read by Stephen Fry). The book is one that I love and it has been great to share it with my son. It has dated a bit, I suppose – the actual Hitchhiker’s Guide, which seemed so magical when I read it as a teen, could now be outdone by anyone with a smartphone and Wikipedia – but it was nice to hear it all again. Fry’s narration is good too.

My last read was ‘Last Place You Look’ by Louisa Scarr, a crime procedural about a mysterious death and some pretty unconventional policing. My review will follow as part of the blog tour later in the month. This is to be the first in a new series featuring DS Robin Butler and DC Freya West – and they are an engaging pair of characters.

What are you reading now?

Still too many books!

I have two new buddy reads for March and have started making in-roads into both.

With the Tsundoku Squad, I’m reading ‘The Islanders’ by S V Leonard and it is a lot of fun so far. It’s a kind of clever mix of ‘Love Island’ and Agatha Christie’s ‘And Then There Were None’ – with echoes of Ben Elton’s ‘Dead Famous’ as people are picked off under the watchful eye of reality TV cameras. So far, so good.

The Write Reads group have chosen a graphic novel this month, ‘Bloodlust and Bonnets’ by Emily McGovern. I’ve not done much more than have a quick glance through this so far, but it looks great – a 19th century setting, plus vampires, a feisty heroine and Lord Byron have me sold!

I’m still reading the new Katie Fforde book, ‘A Wedding in the Country’. I’ve read a bit more of this since last update and am enjoying it, but unfortunately had to put it down for some blog tour books. It’s a cosy, cheery read – as you’d expect from Fforde – although I was surprised by the 1960s setting. It works though!

I’m also reading ‘How to Live. What to Do’ by Josh Cohen, a psychoanalyst who looks at life through the lens of literature. Each ‘phase’ of life is examined, with various examples from literature being clinically examined – for example, childhood is looked at by exploring ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and the experiences of the main protagonist. I’m not familiar with some of the examples Cohen is using, but it is an interesting idea and an engaging read.

What do you think you will read next?

I have a blog tour for ‘The Shadow in the Glass’ by JJA Harwood. I love the look of this gothic, Victorian story!

I am also desperate to read some more of Bonnie MacBird’s Sherlock Holmes books after reading ‘The Three Locks’ so I think they are in my near future!

Many thanks to NetGalley, blog tour hosts, publishers and authors for books in exchange for an honest review.

Blog Tour: ‘Nick’ by Michael Farris Smith

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for ‘Nick’ by Michael Farris Smith, a book that imagines the life of the character of Nick Carraway before he ends up as narrator of ‘The Great Gatsby’.

This blog tour is organised by Oldcastle Books/No Exit Press and I am thrilled to have been asked to join the tour!

From the Publisher:

This rich and imaginative novel from critically acclaimed author Michael Farris Smith breathes new life into a character that many know only from the periphery. Before Nick Carraway moved to West Egg and into Gatsby’s world, he was at the centre of a very different story – one taking place along the trenches and deep within the tunnels of World War I. Floundering in the wake of the destruction he witnessed first-hand, Nick embarks on a redemptive journey that takes him from a whirlwind Paris romance – doomed from the very beginning – to the dizzying frenzy of New
Orleans, rife with its own flavour of debauchery and violence.

‘NICK is so pitch-perfect, so rich in character and
action, so remarkable a combination of elegance
and passion, so striking in felt originality that I am
almost tempted to say – book gods forgive me – that
The Great Gatsby will forever feel like NICK’s splendid
but somewhat paler sequel. Almost tempted to say. But
I have no intention of taking back the sincere passing
thought of it. Michael Farris Smith’s book is that good’
Robert Olen Butler

2021 WILL MARK 125TH ANNIVERSARY OF F. SCOTT FITZGERALD’S BIRTH

‘Anybody who believes that the war is
over when the enemy surrenders and
the troops come home needs to read
Michael Farris Smith’s masterful new
novel NICK. Its stark, unvarnished
truth will haunt you’
Richard Russo

‘Stylish, evocative, haunting and
wholly original, Michael Farris Smith
has paid tribute to a classic and made
it his own. A remarkable achievement
that should sit at the very top of
everyone’s must-read list’
Chris Whitaker

My Review:

I’m a huge fan of ‘The Great Gatsby’, so I absolutely jumped at the opportunity to read this book, a kind of ‘prequel’ to the 1925 novel. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for granting me an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book focused on the story of Nick Carraway, the narrator of F Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby’. In the original novel, a few things are revealed about the character – the fact he is a Midwesterner, the fact he served in World War I and the fact he finds himself in West Egg (where ‘Gatsby’ is set) aged 29. This gives Michael Farris Smith considerable scope to imagine Nick’s life up to that point and it is a challenge he seems to embrace wholeheartedly.

The story opens in Paris where Nick is on leave from fighting in the trenches of World War I. He meets a young woman and the initial part of the book is their (short) relationship before Nick is called back to combat. A period in the trenches follows – brutal, grim and shocking – before Nick goes to New Orleans and starts to search for his life back in America.

The varied settings of the novel are fascinating as Nick explores a corner of wartime Paris, the trenches and tunnels of the front line in France, the seedy quarter of New Orleans where the speakeasies and brothels are, before finally moving on to West Egg and his future. These places – a theatre attic, a bar, an apartment – are vividly evoked and make Nick’s story jump from the page.

I don’t want to give any spoilers, but it is clear that Nick is suffering from PTSD and a lot of his subsequent experiences are tinged with tragedy. This is a novel that doesn’t shy away from some big themes, from war to grief, revenge to violence, love to loss. Some of the novel, especially the scenes in the trenches and the post-war life of war veteran Judah, is hard to read but extremely powerful.

The writing is vivid and Michael Farris Smith presents a range of characters who engage the reader in their lives and hopes and dreams. Personally, I was most interested in the lives of the women of the novel – the survival instincts of both Colette and Ella in their different ways was interesting. I’d have loved to read more of Ella’s story as she was a mysterious figure in the novel in a lot of ways.

There were a couple of things I found a little jarring that took me out of the richly-imagined world of ‘Nick’ but I think these may be personal things. I found reported speech to be written oddly – totally a stylistic choice by the writer, but one I found tricky to follow sometimes. I also was thrown by a reference to possums – I won’t elaborate but it felt unusual in the context.

So, the big question. Has Michael Farris Smith successfully recreated a Nick Carraway that fits with the character written by F Scott Fitzgerald? My honest answer is that I don’t know. I suspect I would read ‘The Great Gatsby’ with a different view of Nick now, but I’d say the main ingredients are there in Smith’s portrayal. His Nick is honest, introspective and often an observer even in his own life – all features of Fitzgerald’s narrator too. The decision to narrate ‘Nick’ in the third person (as opposed to first person in ‘Gatsby’) escapes the need to recreate Nick’s exact voice, but I’d say these two Nicks could credibly be the same person.

Overall, I would say that I was caught up in Nick’s story and enjoyed the narrative decisions made by Smith to explain how Nick comes to be in West Egg at the start of ‘Gatsby’, plus his emotional baggage. It isn’t always a comfortable read, but I did find it immersive and interesting. If you love ‘The Great Gatsby’, this is definitely worth reading and may give you a different understanding of Nick. If you haven’t read ‘The Great Gatsby’, this is absolutely worth picking up on its own merits. Either way, I’d recommend it.

About the Author:

No Exit Press also publish Michael Farris Smith’s novels Desperation Road, The Fighter and most recently Blackwood. Farris Smith has been a finalist for the Gold Dagger Award in the UK, and the Grand Prix des Lectrices in France, and his essays have appeared in publications including The New York Times. He lives in Oxford, Mississippi, with his wife and daughters.

February Wrap-Up and March TBR

It has been another weird month of remote teaching and a fair amount of reading – 10 books in total. I’ve read some brilliant books this month and have some fabulous blog tours coming up, so watch this space!

Here’s what I’ve been reading this month…

Affiliate links are provided – thank you for supporting my blog with any purchases.

February Wrap-Up

I started this month with a big, glamorous thriller – ‘Ruthless Women’ by Melanie Blake. Taking place on the set of a soap opera off the coast of Jersey, this is packed with ambitious women, affairs, jealousy, gossip and backstabbing. I raced through it and it is definitely a lot of fun. You can read my review here.

Next up was the latest in the crime series featuring DI Gina Harte – ‘The Broken Ones’ by Carla Kovach. I have read and loved so many of these books and this one is brilliant! Tense, action-packed and downright scary in places! Although it is Book 8 of the series, it would also work as a standalone, I think. This book is published tomorrow and my review will be on the blog then.

Then I finally finished the absolutely brilliant ‘Maiden Voyages’ by Sian Evans. It took a while because blog tour books kept getting in the way, but I absolutely loved this non-fiction book about women whose lives were somehow linked to the transatlantic shipping crossings between (approximately) World War I to the start of the jet age at the end of the 1950s. There was glitz and glamour, but also amazing accounts of bravery and some fascinating life stories. My review is here but this is my BOOK OF THE MONTH!

Heading back onto my usual turf, I then read serial killer thriller ‘Dog Rose Dirt’ by Jen Williams. This will be heading your way in July so a review will follow nearer that time, but it is definitely one to keep an eye out for!

At this point in the month, I then panicked that I had a lot of blog tours at the end of February and start of March that I hadn’t read the books for yet!

My first blog tour read was ‘Old Bones’ by Helen Kitson, a gorgeously-written story about three older women living in a small village who in many ways feel that life has passed them by. When human remains are found in a nearby quarry, well-hidden secrets begin to surface. I found this one really compelling – you can read my review here.

The next blog tour book was ‘Seven Days’ by Michelle Kidd, an absolute page-turner of a police procedural. I raced through this one, the second in the series to feature DI Jack MacIntosh (I read the first, ‘The Phoenix Project’, for a blog tour last year). My review is here.

Then I read ‘The Shadowy Third: Love, Letters and Elizabeth Bowen’ by Julia Parry. This is a brilliant non-fiction book about Bowen’s affair with Humphry House (the author’s grandfather) and the third point in the love triangle, Madeline House (the author’s grandmother). The book is packed with insights into all three figures, plus thoughts on writing, legacy and storytelling. I didn’t know much about Bowen before this, but found it really interesting. My blog tour stop is next week so look out for this one.

My final blog tour book was ‘Nick’ by Michael Farris Smith, a prequel to F Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby’ which explains how Nick Carraway came to be in West Egg for the events of the classic novel. This was a compelling and vivid novel which took the reader through World War I Paris, the trenches and post-war New Orleans. My review will follow next week.

To end the month, I also finished two books that I’ve been reading with various blogger groups on Twitter. The Tsundoku Squad and I read ‘Paris by Starlight’ by Robert Dinsdale and I also read ‘Cemetery Boys’ by Aiden Thomas with The Write Reads book club that isn’t a book club!

Both of these were enjoyable in their own way – I liked the magical setting of Dinsdale’s book and the fascinating Latinx community and culture in Thomas’ novel. I probably wouldn’t have picked either of these books up independently, but am glad to have read them, even if I found the Paris book quite slow sometimes.

A busy month for reading and quite an eclectic set of books!

March TBR

As usual, I have a lot of books that I’d love to read this month. I never predict accurately, but here goes…

In March, I have blog tours for the following:

‘Behind Closed Doors’ by Catherine Alliott – I usually love Alliott’s books and am looking forward to this story of a woman sorting her life out after the end of her difficult marriage.

‘The Three Locks’ by Bonnie MacBird – I love a Sherlock Holmes story and this one looks fabulous!

‘The Shadow in the Glass’ by JJA Harwood – anything labelled as a Gothic fairytale has me on board, especially one with a Victorian setting!

‘Last Place You Look’ by Louisa Scarr – this is the first book in a new crime series to feature DS Robin Butler and DC Freya West. I love a police procedural so cannot wait to dive in to this one.

My ‘book club’ books for this month are ‘The Islanders’ by SV Leonard (Tsundoku Squad choice and looks to be a cracking crime novel) and ‘Bloodlust and Bonnets’ by Emily McGovern (The Write Reads choice – I haven’t read a graphic novel in years so am looking forward to this!)

There are also many, many NetGalley books waiting for me – so we shall have to see what I actually manage to read!

With thanks, as always, to blog tour hosts, publishers and NetGalley for granting me access to advance copies of books in exchange for honest reviews.

WWW Wednesday – 17th February, 2021

Links are provided for books mentioned – thanks for supporting my blog with any purchases (at no extra cost to you!)

What have you recently finished reading?

It’s been two weeks since my last WWW Wednesday so it looks like I’ve been extra-productive on the reading front!

I finished reading ‘Ruthless Women’ by Melanie Blake (from NetGalley) – this is due to be published in April but is well worth looking out for! It’s a Jackie-Collins-style novel packed with glamorous and strong women, high-powered jobs and tonnes of secrets and lies! It’s based around a soap opera set off the coast of Jersey and is a whole lot of fun. My review will follow nearer the publication date.

I finally finished ‘Maiden Voyages: Women and the Golden Age of Transatlantic Travel’ by Sian Evans. It has taken me ages because it kept getting bumped by blog tour books, but it is absolutely fabulous! The golden age of transatlantic travel sure was glamorous for some, hard work for others and extraordinarily dangerous for those sailing during war time (or with Violet Jessop – the ‘unsinkable stewardess – who had an appalling track record of being on doomed ships!) My glowing review is here.

I also read (for a blog tour with Random Things Tours) ‘Botanical Curses and Poisons: The Shadow Lives of Plants’ by Fez Inkwright. This book is a beautifully-illustrated and fascinating guide to plants of the more lethal variety! Thanks to the publisher, Liminal 11, for the review copy in exchange for my honest opinions. My review is here.

I also managed to squeeze in two gripping and – quite frankly – terrifying crime novels. I raced through both of these with my heart pounding – watch out for them!

First up was ‘The Broken Ones’ by Carla Kovach, the latest in the series featuring DI Gina Harte. In this excellent instalment, young women are being taken off the streets and it is clear that a very disturbed character is responsible – someone who must be stopped before he kills again. My review will be on the blog nearer the publication date in March 2021.

I also read ‘Dog Rose Dirt’ by Jen Williams which also proved very scary! This is about a young woman who finds out that her mother was writing to a serial killer in jail throughout her life. After her mother’s suicide, a series of copycat killings begin and she is forced to confront her mother’s past in order to help the current investigation. This one isn’t published until July 2021 and my review will follow.

Both of these were NetGalley reads – thanks to NetGalley for my free copies in exchange for honest reviews.

What are you reading now?

I’ve got two buddy reads on the go at the moment – luckily they are so different that there’s no way I’ll get them confused!

I’m reading ‘Paris by Starlight’ by Robert Dinsdale with my Tsundoku Squad lovelies. This is a slightly whimsical tale of a group of displaced people who end up in Paris but bring the magical ways of their old country with them. The people live by night by the light of their beautiful illuminated flowers and according to their book, ‘The Nocturne’. I’m halfway through and the descriptions are glorious – but I cannot see at all where it is going!

I’m also reading (with the fabulous Write Reads gang) ‘Cemetery Boys’ by Aiden Thomas, a Latinx tale centred around a trans boy in Los Angeles who wants to join his family in being able to release the dead into the afterlife. I’m halfway through this as well and am still not quite sure what I think – the setting is fabulous, the Day of the Dead a very promising element still to come, the representation is great, characters good…but I am finding the plot a bit uneven at the moment.

My next blog tour is ‘Seven Days’ by Michelle Kidd so I’ve also started reading this fast-paced and tense sequel to ‘The Phoenix Project’ (which I read last year). It is early days, but I’m enjoying my reunion with DI Jack MacIntosh so far! Review to follow on the blog next week.

What do you think you will read next?

I’m supposed to be doing a Poirot readalong but have failed to fit in ‘The Mysterious Affair at Styles’ by Agatha Christie – I need to catch up before we move on to ‘Murder on the Links’.

I have rather over-enthusiastically embraced blog tours in March and so have a good few books to read. I’ll shortly be reading ‘The Shadowy Third: Love, Letters and Elizabeth Bowen’ by Julia Parry, ‘Nick’ by Michael Farris Smith and ‘Behind Closed Doors’ by Catherine Alliott. All look absolutely brilliant and I cannot wait to dive in.

Thank to NetGalley for the books in exchange for an honest review.

My 10 Most Anticipated Books of 2021

2020 has been an absolute bin fire, so it is definitely time to look forward to what is coming this way next year!

These are the 10 books that I’m looking forward to in 2021. Some I can’t wait to read and some I’ve read already (thank you, NetGalley!) and can’t wait for others to read so I can chat about how amazing they are.

As always, my genres are broadly historical and crime – I’m sure there are fabulous books coming on other genres but this is my list…

Amazon affiliate links are for pre-orders – thank you for supporting my blog with any purchases.

‘The Shape of Darkness’ by Laura Purcell (January 2021 – Raven Books)

I have really loved Purcell’s previous books – ‘The Corset’ and ‘Bone China’ are both creepily gothic and sinister in just the way I love! I haven’t read her first novel, ‘The Silent Companions’ (I know!), but am eagerly awaiting this one that tells a story wound up with elements of spiritualism and also the art of silhouette-cutting. I’m anticipating a strong female lead, lots of spookiness and a few murders along the way! Purcell can be relief upon for first-class historical fiction and I cannot wait.

‘Daughters of Night’ by Laura Shepherd-Robinson (February 2021 – Pan Macmillan)

Following on from the totally brilliant and immersive ‘Blood and Sugar’, this is another perfectly-pitched mystery set in Georgian London. Using some of the characters from the first novel, this one follows Caro Corsham as she investigates the death of a woman she finds dying in Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. It is beautifully written and I cannot wait for its release so that more people can enjoy it – it was due for publication in 2020 but delayed due to the Current Awfulness (to use Caitlin Moran’s term!)

‘The Whole Truth’ by Cara Hunter (February 2021 – Penguin)

A new instalment in the DI Fawley series by Cara Hunter is always a cause for celebration – these are excellent modern police procedurals with plenty of twists and turns, plus a likeable and convincingly-portayed police team. This one takes a novel route through a sexual harassment case with a side of murder and no-one is safe from suspicion. There is so much I want to talk about with this one!

‘Nick’ by Michael Farris Smith (February 2021 – No Exit Press)

I’ve loved ‘The Great Gatsby’ since I first picked it up as a teenager back in the dark ages (OK, 1990s!) Something about the glamour, the decadence and the setting of 1920s America really appealed to me then, so I’m really excited for this new book about Nick Carraway, Gatsby’s narrator. It promises to tell his story before the events of F Scott Fitzgerald’s famous novel – from the trenches of World War I to Paris and New Orleans. I love the sound of all this!

‘Hyde’ by Craig Russell (February 2021 – Constable)

I loved Russell’s previous novel, ‘The Devil Aspect’, and also am pretty familiar with the source text for this one, Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ (a favourite of GCSE Literature syllabuses). I’m intrigued by the idea of there being no Dr Jekyll to balance out the Hyde (in this story Captain Hyde) and can’t wait to get immersed in Victorian Edinburgh to find out what happens.

‘Lie Beside Me’ by Gytha Lodge (February 2021 – Michael Joseph)

This is the latest in the modern crime series starring DCI Jonah Sheens. I’ve read the previous books in the series and am eagerly awaiting this one – and early reviews suggest it is good. The case here is of a women who wakes up next to a dead man that she has never seen before. She becomes the police’s prime suspect, but nothing is quite as it seems…

‘Madam’ by Phoebe Wynne (February 2021 – Quercus)

I heard about this one from Quercus’ excellent preview evening in which they showcased some of their 2021 titles. Loads of them sounded brilliant, but this one is just my thing – a gothic tale of a remote girls’ boarding school and the young women that arrives to join the teaching staff. This one looks deliciously dark and has a feminist slant too – plus the proof looks fabulous!

‘Dangerous Women’ by Hope Adams (March 2021 – Michael Joseph)

I’ll admit, I was totally won over by the cover of this one (I know – don’t judge a book and all that jazz!) It’s a glorious image of an old-fashioned sailing ship on rough seas with an intriguing theatre curtain surround. Digging further into the blurb, it turns out to be an early Victorian story of female convicts on board a ship heading for the colonies when a murder takes place. How can you solve a crime on a ship full of criminals? I have no idea, but it sounds brilliant!

‘The Last House on Needless Street’ by Catriona Ward (March 2021 – Viper)

Anything marketed as ‘The Gothic Thriller of 2021’ totally has my attention! The blurb doesn’t really give anything away but mentions that it is the story of a serial killer, an average house on an average street and that it will not be what you expect…sign me up! Early feedback on this one seems to be really positive so I am looking forward to finding out what the hype is about.

‘Ariadne’ by Jennifer Saint (April 2021 – Wildfire)

I love a Greek myth retelling and this one looks amazing. Picking up the story of Ariadne (admittedly one I’m a bit hazy on the details of…), this promises a feminist slant on the Classical tale. I’ve seen such beautiful proofs of this one on Twitter that I am wondering who I need to grovel to for a copy!

So there you have it – 10 books that I cannot wait to read and share! What books are you eagerly awaiting from the 2021 crop?

WWW Wednesday: 11th November, 2020

Links are provided for books already published/pre-orders – thanks for supporting my blog with any purchases (at no extra cost to you!)

What have you recently finished reading?

I have finished reading ‘The Wrong Sort to Die’ by Paula Harmon, a historical mystery novel that is for a blog tour with Damp Pebbles. It’s an engaging story about a pioneering female pathologist in Edwardian London. My review will be on the blog tour next week.

Then I read ‘The Cousins’ by Karen McManus, a YA thriller, for a blog tour at the end of November with The Write Reads. This one is a twisty story of family lies and long-buried secrets in a small island community on Gull Cove Island in America.

Another blog tour book also turned up this week and I devoured it in one sitting! ‘How Love Actually Ruined Christmas (or Colourful Narcotics)’ by Gary Raymond is a hilarious skewering of the 2003 Richard Curtis film, ‘Love Actually’. It made me laugh so much and nod in agreement. My (extremely gushing) review will be on the blog later in the month as part of the Damp Pebbles tour.

What are you reading now?

I’ve joined a reading group on Twitter in order to (hopefully) knock through some of the NetGalley backlog – this was set up by the lovely Emandherbooks and is a supportive group of bloggers working on #NetGalleyNovember2020.

Due to them, I’ve made excellent in-roads to Laura Purcell’s ‘The Shape of Darkness’ which I am absolutely loving! It’s a historical, spooky, gothic tale involving spiritualism and murder – right up my street! This one will be published in January 2021.

I’m also reading ‘Rebecca’ by Daphne du Maurier with the fabulous bunch at The Write Reads. It’s a book that (I’m ashamed to say) I’ve failed to read on two previous occasions but I’m making progress this time.

I’m still reading ‘Pandora’s Jar’ by Natalie Haynes. I’m enjoying it but can’t seem to make much progress as it is packed with ideas and interesting stuff. I keep having to put it down to digest bits!

Finally, I’m still working my way through the audiobook of Jasper Rees’ ‘Let’s Do It’, the biography of Victoria Wood that is read by so many famous voices. Although I love the narration, I am finding it quite slow going and – coming in at about 21 hours – I have a long way to go. I’m not sure I’m going to make it.

What do you think you will read next?

I’ve just taken on another blog tour for Damp Pebbles as there was a date that needed filling so my next read is ‘The Heat’, a crime novella by Sean O’Leary.

Then it’s back to NetGalley and the brilliant ARCs vying for my attention! Top of the pile at the moment (but always subject to change) are these gems:

‘Hyde’ by Craig Russell – I loved ‘The Devil Aspect’, his previous novel, and cannot wait to immerse myself in Victorian Edinburgh with this one
‘The Dead of Winter’ by Nicola Upson – I love this detective series in which the sleuth is crime writer Josephine Tey and this is the latest
‘Lie Beside Me’ by Gytha Lodge – the latest instalment of another brilliant crime series and the blurb on this one is incredible!
‘Threadneedle’ by Cari Thomas – I’ve seen a lot about this book all over Twitter and it sounds magical
‘Nick’ by Michael Farris Smith – a novel focusing on the narrator of ‘The Great Gatsby’ before the events of that story

As always, thanks for reading and following my blog!

With thanks to the blog tour hosts, publishers, authors and NetGalley for providing me with the books in exchange for honest reviews. The only book not provided for free in this week’s round-up is ‘Rebecca’ by Daphne du Maurier.

Header photo with thanks to Jessica Fadel for sharing their work on Unsplash.

October Wrap-Up and November TBR

How is it that time again?! The end of another month and another step nearer Christmas (yay!) and the end of 2020 (*huge sigh of relief*).

This month I have read 11 books and hit my GoodReads Challenge target of 100 books for the year!

It’s been a funny month with some real reading slumps as well as some absolutely BRILLIANT books. So, without further ado, here’s what I read this month…

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October Wrap-Up

I started the month with the brilliant ‘More Than a Woman’ by Caitlin Moran – an often funny, fresh and brutally honest take on what it means to be a middle-aged woman. This was my first five-star read of the month – you can see my review here.

After this, I read ‘Jeeves and the Leap of Faith’ by Ben Schott, a new Jeeves and Wooster novel written with the blessing of the PG Wodehouse estate. Nothing quite hits the highs of Wodehouse’s original novels, but Schott has done a great job of the language and comic elements. You can read my review here.

Next up was a blog tour for ‘The Creak on the Stairs’ by Eva Bjorg Aegisdottir, a chilling and dark piece of Nordic Noir crime fiction. Set in Iceland, this follows Chief Investigating Officer Elma as she tries to solve a murder that is stirring up the unsavoury past of some people in the small town of Akranes. You can read my blog tour post here.

Then came ‘The Servant’ by Maggie Richell-Davies, a dark historical tale of a girl who has fallen on difficult times in Georgian London. This book won the Historical Writers’ Association award for a (then) unpublished novel and is definitely worth a read – my review is here.

One of my audiobooks (listened to in the car with my kids) this month was Roald Dahl’s ‘Boy’, read by Dan Stevens. We all enjoyed this one – a lively performance of a book that I’ve loved since childhood. It has been a joy to relive the experiences of Dahl at school at Repton, on holiday in Norway, with his eccentric family and upsetting teachers and sweet-shop owners alike.

Next up was ‘The Phoenix Project’ by Michelle Kidd for another blog tour in November. This was a fast-paced thriller with a wide scope – London, Paris, Africa, Russian spies and the British Government – and all very tense! Watch this space for my blog tour review.

Then I enjoyed Walburga Appleseed’s ‘The Princess and the Prick’, a short book with some very concise feminist retellings of fairy tales, myths and nursery rhymes. Beautifully illustrated, this managed to pack plenty of food for thought into a small space.

Another short but powerful book was ‘Essex Girls’ by Sarah Perry, a feminist celebration of the qualities of the Essex Girl stereotype. In Perry’s book, Essex becomes a state of mind rather than a geographical location and we are introduced to a host of fabulous women from history. My review is here.

Another of my five-star books this month was ‘Practically Perfect: Life Lessons from Mary Poppins’ by Katy Brand. Anyone with any love for the 1964 film should read this as it is fascinating but delightfully comforting. My review can be found here.

Then I listened to another audiobook, ‘The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid’, a charming and funny book about Bill Bryson’s experiences of growing up in the 1950s in Des Moines in Iowa. This one is read by Bryson himself and his dry wit really comes through in the recording.

Finally, I finished the month with ‘The Devil and the Dark Water’ by Stuart Turton, a historical crime novel that I absolutely loved. You can read my review here.

November TBR

I am absolutely awful at predicting what I will read in the future – I read according to my mood and who knows where that may take me!?

However, I do have a lot of NetGalley ARCs that I should read. Here is just a selection:

‘The Shape of Darkness’ by Laura Purcell – I loved her previous books and this one promises to be equally fabulous.
‘The Whole Truth’ by Cara Hunter – this is the latest in a great series of police procedurals in which we follow DI Fawley as he tries to uncover truth. I’ve loved the other books so have high hopes for this.
‘The Dead of Winter’ by Nicola Upson – another series I’ve followed for a long time, this one puts crime writer Josephine Tey into the role of detective against the backdrop of Europe in the lead-up to World War II.
‘Hyde’ by Craig Russell – Russell’s first book, ‘The Devil Aspect’, was amazing and I hope this one will be every bit as good. Set in Victorian Edinburgh and featuring a series of mysterious ritualistic murders, this looks like it will be a dark and thrilling read.
‘Mr Wilder and Me’ by Jonathan Coe – I’ve loved previous books by Coe and this, set in the heat of the 1977 summer, looks glorious.
‘Nick’ by Michael Farris Smith – this new book about the early life of the fictional narrator of ‘The Great Gatsby’ looks really interesting.
‘Lie Beside Me’ by Gytha Lodge – the latest in another crime series that I’ve enjoyed vey much. This is the latest to feature DCI Jonah Sheens.
‘Let’s Do It: The Authorised Biography of Victoria Wood’ by Jasper Rees – I’ve been granted this one on audiobook and am looking forward to learning more about Wood from her closest friends and colleagues (some of whom narrate the book).

This is ignoring the huge stacks of books in my house and my jam-packed Kindle so we shall wait and see what I actually manage to read!

Header photo with thanks to Alex Geerts for sharing their work on Unsplash.

WWW Wednesday: 16th September 2020

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words. It’s open for everyone to join in and share what they have been/are/will be reading!

Affiliate links are provided for books already available – I may earn commission on any purchases at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog!

What are you currently reading?

I’ll admit that I’m still reading ‘Unto This Last’, the fictionalised biography of John Ruskin, for a blog tour later in the month. The length of the novel and the complexity of the writing mean that I’m slowing and savouring this one!

I’ve just started my buddy read with the lovely Jodie at Relish Books – we are tackling ‘Good Samaritans’ by Will Carver. It’s early days but all good so far.

What have you recently finished reading?

I’ve just read Gill Sims’ latest book in her ‘What Mummy’ series – this one, the fourth and last – is called ‘Why Mummy’s Sloshed’ and follows Sims’ protagonist Ellen through the parenthood highs and lows of having teenage children. My review will be on the blog nearer to publication date (1st October) but it is – delightfully and hilariously – more of the realistic and relatable views of parenting we have come to expect from Sims.

I’ve also just finished Ruby Wax’s ‘And Now For the Good News’, an uplifting non-fiction book about the things that humanity is getting right – something I really needed to hear about! The review will follow on the blog nearer to the publication date next week.

Finally, I finished an audiobook by Adam Rutherford called ‘The Book of Humans’. It is a really interesting analysis of how humans differ (or perhaps don’t!) from other animals. I also love Adam Rutherford’s voice and could probably listen to him read the phone book so all was good!

What do you think you will read next?

I am absolutely never accurate with this because new things arrive and bump everything else down the TBR!

I’m still very excited to read some of the line-up of ARCs I’ve got on NetGalley, although I’m trying to prioritise in order of publication. I’m keen to read Stuart Turton’s ‘The Devil and the Dark Water’, Laura Purcell’s ‘The Shape of Darkness’ and Nick’ by Michael Farris Smith (based on the narrator of ‘The Great Gatsby’).

I’ve also just received this glorious-looking book, ‘Cows Can’t Jump’ by Philip Bowne for a blog tour in October that is just calling out to be read! It’s a debut novel that’s already won a Spotlight First Novel prize and I am looking forward to it. It will be published on 24th September.

My non-fiction TBR is also looking huge and precarious! Jilly Cooper’s ‘Between the Covers’ (ARC), Dawn O’Porter’s ‘Life in Pieces’ (ARC) and Olivia Williams’ ‘The Secret Life of the Savoy’ are all clamouring for my attention!

I received these books (apart from the Will Carver and Adam Rutherford ones) from NetGalley or a blog tour company in return for an honest review.

Header photo with thanks to Robert Anasch for sharing their work on Unsplash.