May Roundup

Apparently you should not ‘cast a clout ’til May is out’. Now whether that is May blossom or the month knows, but May has truly gone and whilst I have not quite succumbed to all things Summer, you can tell it is warming up around here! Reading wise I am still coasting two books behind schedule, but to that I stick my tongue out, especially as I have read some books this month simply because I needed the comfort that such reads bring.

Fern Britton’s new novel is currently out in hardback (I am awaiting the paperback version) but to catch up I read Hidden Treasures which was her second novel. These books are very much beach, easy reads and great for when you want to read and be caught by a story but not so you remain thinking about the book whilst not reading it and once finished.

Now Fern is not quite up to the standard of Veronica Henry – Honeycote* (getting there you could say?). This is Veronica Henry’s first novel and is the first in a trilogy around the village of Honeycote. It was racy and romantic without going overboard or even hinting at anything slightly Fifty Shades. For that it was all that more enjoyable and I do like reading these novels. Trouble when you start a trilogy is I have to read them in order and I have read book one, have got book three but will need to find book two!

Both these first two author’s I have read before and the only other author that is familiar to me in May was Sara Sheridan – London Calling*. This is the second book to feature Mirabelle Bevan and has been sat on my shelf for a very long time as it was originally an Amazon Vine choice.  Why I had not got round to reading it earlier, I don’t know but I knew her third book was out and then I realised  that I would be seeing Sara at the newbooks Readers Day at the end of June, so thought I had better remind myself what I was reading. It is January 1952 and London is full of smog and some rather unsavoury characters and it seems Mirabelle is the only one who can decode it all. A great read.

Crime is what Mirabelle Bevan helps solve, even if that is not her job. Cormoran Strike on the other hand in Robert Galbraith’s – A Cuckoo’s Calling* is a private detective and so he expects to solve cases. Trouble is, he his is broke with only one client and no permanent secretary, not really an auspicious start. However, this is very much a novel that reflects Kate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie and is well worth a look at. And yes I do know who *really* wrote it.

In any sort of crime novel you want justice, but sometimes that justice has to be taken into the hands of other people and the ending is very much not what you think or want. Phil Hogan – A Pleasure and A Calling is one such book which made stop think and look around my surroundings, if you read it it will make you do the same. Trust me.

Book staying with you can mean many different things to many different people and Graeme Simsion – The Rosie Project is another book which makes you stop think and redress many ideas and also many acquaintances. A humorous book which was my book clubs choice for May and was a very popular one. There was such an innocence about a book which featured an adult man.

One thing that stays with many people when they are in school or well past that is the horror’s of war. We are shown on television daily of the battles and fights going on now across the globe. But back in the Second World War, these horrors were not so easily visualised for the masses to see. These images were kept amongst those who had suffered and those that had known so the next generation were never affected by them. But history teaches us something. In Kristin Harmel – The Sweetness of Forgetting we learn about one the main characters very different past and how through the power of baking, food and taste memories will always live on. So should their stories.

I do not read enough short stories, I read ‘teaser; type stories that are available on kindle, which I sometimes think is a bit of a cheat especially when I count them as a book read. However, Alison Moore – The Lighthouse* is a novel less than 200 pages and rather quirky and intriguing. The book has made me think so much can be told in such little space.

And so May is complete and it is the first time in a while that I have not got a book on the go. I actually finished Sara Sheridan on the 1st June, due to waking up in the night and finishing it off, but I felt that it really was a May book.

I now have the delicious choice of choosing my next book to read…..