Victoria Wood Archives - The Quick and the Read

WWW Wednesday: 11th November, 2020

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 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.

WWW Wednesday: 4th November, 2020

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

What have you recently finished reading?

I finished my audiobook of ‘The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid’ which was written and read by Bill Bryson. I really enjoyed this autobiographical tale of Bryson’s childhood in Des Moines, Iowa, in the 1950s and would recommend it.

Then I read ‘The Devil and the Dark Water’ by Stuart Turton which I LOVED! It’s a dark and twisty tale of murder and mayhem on a ship travelling between the Dutch East Indies and Amsterdam in 1634. My review is here.

Lastly, I read ‘The Whole Truth’, the new DI Fawley book from Cara Hunter which is due out in March 2021. What starts as a he said/she said investigation into a sexual assault becomes something much more deadly for Fawley and his team. Review will follow in the blog nearer to the publication date.

What are you reading now?

I’m reading ‘The Wrong Sort to Die’ by Paula Harmon for a forthcoming blog tour. This is about a female doctor in 1910, a pioneering pathologist and one making her way in a man’s world. It’s also a mystery story so it is keeping me guessing!

I’m still reading ‘Pandora’s Jar’ by Natalie Haynes – I really like it but it has been pushed aside for various blog tour books. I’m currently reading about Helen of Troy and it is very interesting to hear a different perspective to usual as she is normally portrayed quite negatively.

I’ve started listening to the audiobook of ‘Let’s Do It’ by Jasper Rees, the biography of Victoria Wood. It’s engaging so far and interesting to hear about the more private side of Wood, the shy perfectionist, rather than her on-screen persona. The cast reading this are absolutely brilliant so I’m glad I went for the audio version.

What do you think you will read next?

I am about to read ‘The Cousins’ by Karen McManus for a blog tour with The Write Reads. I’m looking forward to this one as it is a standalone mystery about secrets within a family and sounds very tense!

I am also determined to get to the books that are top of my pile on Netgalley – ‘The Shape of Darkness’ by Laura Purcell and ‘Hyde’ by Craig Russell. I’m so looking forward to these two above all others. I’m determined to make a dent in the NetGalley backlog so that will be the focus of the next month or so.

So that’s another WWW Wednesday done! This year is flying by and I’m on the countdown to Christmas now…

Header photo with thanks to Alisa Anton for sharing her 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…

(Links to books already published are affiliate links – thank you for supporting my blog with any purchases).

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: 28th October, 2020

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

Hurrah! The reading slump appears to be at an end! I’d not read much in the past few weeks, despite having excellent books (and ones I’ve really enjoyed).

No more! It is no coincidence that this coincides with half term holidays, but I’ve managed to read a lot this week and I’ve LOVED what I’ve read.

What have you recently finished reading?

My kids and I finished our ‘reading’ (via audiobook) of Roald Dahl’s ‘Boy’. They both absolutely loved the stories and the narration by Dan Stevens (who brings the anecdotes to life with some great accents and voices).

I have also just finished ‘The Phoenix Project’ by Michelle Kidd, the first in a series featuring DI Jack MacIntosh. It’s a page-turner of a thriller on a huge scale with twists that just keep coming! This is for a blog tour in November so keep an eye on the blog for my stop on the tour.

Next up was ‘The Princess and the Prick’ by Walburga Appleseed, a collection of feminist retellings of fairy tales, nursery rhymes and myths. It’s clever and funny, although I anticipated a few more words – each story is encapsulated in a few sharp and to-the-point sentences and accompanied by some brilliant illustrations. It’s thought provoking about sexism, dodgy moral codes and issues around consent among other things and definitely worth a read!

Then I read ‘Essex Girls’ by Sarah Perry, a book I was really looking forward to as I am an Essex girl by birth. It was exciting to read Perry’s comments on Chelmsford, my home town, which is where she grew up too. I loved the feminist take on the notion of the ‘Essex girl’ as someone who is outspoken and fearless and unconventional. At only about 80 pages, this is a short but fascinating read about some historical Essex girls and their impact on the world. You can read my full review here.

Finally, I read ‘Practically Perfect: Life Lessons from Mary Poppins’ by comedian Katy Brand. I read this in one sitting, absolutely loving the nostalgic tone of the writing combined with some really incisive ideas about the film and its messages. You can read my review here.

What are you reading now?

I’m still reading (or have started reading) an awful lot of books and I cannot decide what to finish first as they are all great!

I’m still reading ‘The Devil and the Dark Water’ by Stuart Turton, a fabulous historical murder mystery – I’m rattling through this now and it is gripping.

My reading of ‘Pandora’s Jar’ by Natalie Haynes is also still ongoing – I love the depth of analysis of the women from mythology.

I’m also nearing the end of my audiobook, Bill Bryson’s ‘The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid’ – this autobiography about growing up in 1950s small-town America is fascinating, funny and read by Bryson himself.

Finally, I’ve also started ‘Books for Living: A Reader’s Guide to Life’ by Will Schwalbe which someone on Twitter (sorry, I can’t remember who!) recommended when I wrote my post on The Best Books about Books. It’s very promising so far – I love reading about other people’s reading experiences.

What do you think you will read next?

As my book buying habits haven’t taken into account the reading slump, I have plenty of options!

I’m looking forward to moving onto the audiobook of ‘Let’s Do It’ by Jasper Rees, the biography of the late, great Victoria Wood.

I’m also hoping to clear some of the NetGalley shelf over half term – Laura Purcell’s ‘The Shape of Darkness’ and Cara Hunter’s ‘The Whole Truth’ still await, as does ‘Hyde’ by Craig Russell which looks amazing – I loved his previous book, ‘The Devil Aspect’, so I am looking forward to this.

I don’t know why I even try and predict what I’ll read next…I’m such a mood reader that it is impossible to tell where I’ll end up. I am quietly craving a vampire book though… (*buys ‘The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires’ by Grady Hendrix*)

WWW Wednesday: 21st October, 2020

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

What have you recently finished reading?

It hasn’t been a great reading week for me – I’m finding it hard to concentrate on books at the moment, even ones that I am loving!

I have just finished ‘The Servant’ by Maggie Richell-Davies, an immersive historical crime novel set in Georgian London and featuring a fabulous heroine who really does get put through some tough times. You can read my review here.

What are you reading now?

Because I can’t focus on any one thing for very long, I’ve started a lot of books!

I’m listening to the audiobook of Roald Dahl’s ‘Boy’ with my children which is read – rather well, it must be said – by Dan Stevens of Downton Abbey fame. We are all loving this one and anything that can get my 9 year-old interested in an actual book is nothing short of a miracle!

I’m also listening to Bill Bryson’s ‘The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid’, the story of Bryson’s childhood in 1950s America. I’ve always enjoyed Bryson’s travel books but hadn’t come across this collection of autobiographical tales before. It’s (as expected) funny, interesting and engagingly read by the writer himself.

I’ve finally started reading Stuart Turton’s ‘The Devil and the Dark Water’ which is…dark so far! It’s early days but it seems to be building a historical setting that I can really buy into.

I’m also still reading ‘Pandora’s Jar’ by Natalie Haynes. I really like this exploration of the (perhaps unfair) portrayals of women from the world of Greek myth. It is a very involved read though and requires concentration so I’m not progressing as quickly as I thought I would.

What do you think you will read next?

Unfortunately, my reading slump hasn’t coincided with a desire to stop requesting books on NetGalley or buying even more 99p Kindle deals. I am not short of books to read.

Catching my eye at the moment though are the new Cara Hunter book, ‘The Whole Truth’ and ‘The Shape of Darkness’ by Laura Purcell.

Given my new-found love of audiobooks, I’m also thrilled to have been given access to the audiobook biography of Victoria Wood, ‘Let’s Do It’ by Jasper Rees and narrated by a selection of Wood’s friends and colleagues including Julie Walters and Celia Imrie. It’s a slightly daunting 20 hours of listening but I loved Victoria Wood and am looking forward to finding out more about her life.

Header photo with thanks Joanna Kosinska for sharing their work on Unsplash.