July Roundup

You never really left us, you haven't travelled far.

Just stepped into God's garden, and left the door ajar

July is done and dusted and we are certainly now well into the last half of the year. It has been a rather roller coaster of a month reading wise as well as everything else in life as well. July is one of the busiest months of the year and I sadly lost my Nan who has now gone to join my Granddad, so I have sort of wobbled around the latter few days of the month.

However, this post is about my reading and all things considered, it has been a good month and a slightly different choice of books from most ‘average’ months.

Normally crime dominates more than anything, but this month was not the case. I am/was participating in the Crime Fiction Alphabet but I sadly did not keep up with the posts weekly as I wanted to but I read two books this month which will participate to it but cannot be counted ‘officially’. First was Mo Hayder and Hanging Hill, my first foray with this author and I was most impressed although I found it quite gruesome and graphic.  In a completely different crime was Ian Rankin and Watchman*, again this was the first book by this author that I have read. In both cases, I have read stand alone books which do not relate to their most famous characters, DI Caffery and Inspector Rebus respectively. I have yet to discover them.

So that was it for crime, although maybe I should count the short story I read, There Must be Murder by Margaret C. Sullivan if only because of the title. It was actually related to Northanger Abbey, and now I have that book on my must read. My lack of Austen reading is quite dismal, but I am slowly working my through them at my own speed.

The rest of the month’s reading was pure comfort in some ways and was probably what was needed for me at this point. Familiar authors to me came with Veronica Henry and The Long Weekend, her new novel only published in July. If you cannot get away for holiday this year, then read this book, it will certainly go some way to make up for it. Or if you are going on holiday, take this book with you and just enjoy. I checked in and did not want to leave!

Elizabeth Noble was another author I came back. Surprisingly because last time I was not overly enamoured in her last book I read. However her latest book Between a Mother and her Child was a much stronger read than some of her others.

Katie Fforde is a recent author discovery and I have to say, her book A Perfect Proposal* was a great piece of comfort reading when I needed it most. I really do like her novels and now working my way through them with 4 read now this year and 2 more on the shelf looking at me! All I can say is thank you Katie.

Now I am sure everyone knows about the Olympics (if you don’t, then please tell me how!) and I found this little short story Olympic Flames by Emma Lee Potter and thought to get into the spirit of the time I would read this. What a lovely little story and a great diversion if you want a bit of a rest from watching the Olympics.

Finally comfort reading with a new author, Robyn Sisman and Weekend in Paris* sadly it did not really come up to scratch for me and all it did was make me want to pick up a book I would be drawn into. That has come in ending the month reading the new book from Lucinda Riley (The Light Behind the Window) and I am loving it.

* Book review yet to appear on this blog.