January Roundup

Already a month done, already six books read and one abandoned. Pretty good going, but apparently I am still two books behind to keep on any sort of schedule for the 100 for the year. December 2016 seems such a long way off that I am not even thinking about it.

So what of January – well it has brought me new and old and some of the books have yet to even appear for review on my blog.

Plenty to look forward to and that was the case with Katie Fforde – A Summer at Sea, just the tonic you need for wet grey January days. If I dare say Katie at her very best.

Books that are no doubt going to be your favourite in 2016 that feature in January is always a tough call, but Anna Hope – The Ballroom will be up there. Quietly beautiful.

Realising that I was starting to get behind with the Sidney Chambers series, I tackled the third book James Runcie – Sidney Chambers and the Problem of Evil. Sidney is really settling in as a detective as much as a priest and the birth of his daughter is going to strengthen no doubt his place in society and the way he approaches life. I am intrigued as the years tick by in these novels how it is ever going to end. In the meantime I continue to collect the hardback versions of them to make sure they look neat on my shelf.

Jill Mansell seems to have captured me as much as Katie Fforde and I am thoroughly enjoying getting to know her writing more. You and Me, Always her latest novel, is enjoyable and had me laughing and crying in equal measures.

New to me was Christie Barlow – Kitty’s Countryside Dream, an author that is in the same vein as Fforde, Mansell so I thought I would give it a try when it appeared on my netgalley page. So glad I did, another female author to add to the many I enjoy reading.

Working my way through my own shelves, I picked up David Nicholls – Starter for Ten. Having read One Day some years ago and intrigued by whether I should buy his new novel Us, I thought I would go back to his earlier work. Very different, and rather an angst written novel. Uncomfortable to read perhaps, I have yet to formulate everything I want to say about this book.

There could have been a book seven for January but I decided to abandon it – The Silent Wife (see previous post during the month), how liberating and it meant that I was able to pick up and enjoy the other books for January.

So I start the new month reading a new book – I wonder what it will be?