Writing Goals
Managed to get some work done on 'Silver Darling'
Met with cover designer for 'Silver Darling'
Book Cover of 'The Mermaid' made the Page Turner finalists list for Best Cover
Reading Goals
2023 list is now complete and I'm trying to reduce the size of 2024's list before we hit 2025...
This has been a bit of a strange reading month. Everyone who knows my reading habits, will know how rare it is for me not to finish a book - generally speaking it might be 2-3 per year at the most. This month alone I have started and not finished, THREE books! It wasn't even as though I'd been struggling to read - at the start of the month I'd read and enjoyed a variety of books and having finally finished my 2023 reading list, I was starting to work my way through this year's one. Consequently, it was a bit of a surprise to hit such a rut, particularly as 2 of the DNFs were one immediately after the other. By the time I gave up on the second one, I was feeling a bit glum and my eldest son suggested I re-read something I knew I loved. Because I was tired and flat, I went back to a couple of old favourites - Pride and Prejudice variations. None of these require much thinking on my part, I know the stories well because I've read them so many times, I don't have to get to know the characters and so they are unchallenging but pleasant reads. The problem is, they often take me down the rabbit hole of not wanting to read anything else because they are so easy to read. Consequently, whilst I have read 'a few' of them this month, I have made sure to read other things in between as well. There's nothing wrong with re-reading old favourites - in fact, I'm seriously considering making part of 2025's reading to go back and read some old favourites I've not read for a few years. However, I don't want to lose the variety of books I read either!
Book Reviews
Non-Fiction
Lancaster History Tour – Jon Sparks (Pictorial guide to Lancaster past and present. Interesting to see which parts of the city have changed and which been constant.)
The English Pleasure Garden 1660-1860 – Sarah Jane Downing (My favourite part of the Museum of London was always its recreation of the Vauxhall Pleasure Garden so it was interesting to read a bit more information about the ones which were dotted all around the country.)
Normal Women – Philippa Gregory (Audiobook. This is one for women to read and get angry about. I learnt so much about the historical suppression of women and found the more I listened the angrier I became. So much of what we have been taught about sexuality, gender and biology, is a modern construct and although I was vaguely aware of this, this book brought it into sharp focus. A good read for the brain, but not necessarily for the blood pressure…)
Poetry
Carrying The Elephant – Michael Rosen (Small collection of poems about loss and bereavement.)
Flower Fairies of Autumn – Cicely Mary Barker (Another beautifully illustrated collections of poems from my childhood. Made me look forward to autumn!)
Historical
The Daylight Gate – Jeanette Winterson (Book inspired by the Pendle Witch Trials. Unusual, in that often, modern books take the approach that the women accused of being witches were, in reality, ordinary women who were victims. This one, takes the stance that magic is real and the women did have powers.)
The Survivors – Kate Furnivall (Set in a camp for displaced persons, tells the story of a mother who did what she had to during the war in order to survive and to keep her daughter alive. Now out of the war, freedom is still only a word and she will once again do whatever it takes to survive.)
The Secret of Flowers – Sally Page (I have no idea where I found this, but thoroughly enjoyed it, particularly as there was a Titanic connection which either wasn’t mentioned in the blurb, or which I’d forgotten about by the time I came to read it. Light and enjoyable read about family relationships and the importance of being true to yourself.)
General
Clock Dance – Anne Tyler (Story of what happens when women hit their own ‘mid-life’ crisis and decide that they no longer have to conform to the expectations of others.)
Meet Me At The Museum – Anne Youngson (Very gentle epistolary novel exploring the power of friendship and the different options we are given for our lives.)
Crime
The Comfort of Ghosts – Jacqueline Winspear (Last of the Maisie Dobbs books. As always, I thoroughly enjoyed this, but felt a tinge of sadness about leaving Maisie behind.)
And Then There Were None – Agatha Christie (New version of this classic crime novel where in the physical book, the solution is in a sealed envelope at the end. In the kindle version, which I had, a QR code takes you to a website where you cast your vote for who you think the murderer is, before being emailed the final chapter containing the solution. On a first read this was an interesting way to engage the reader, however, I can’t help wondering what happens if the publisher ever decides to close down the website/automatic email service.)
UpLit
The Ladies’ Midnight Swimming Club – Faith Hogan (Book Group pick. Mixed feelings. Definite UpLit book, but lots of things about it were fairly unbelievable in the real world.)
Contemporary
A Visit From The Goon Squad – Jennifer Egan (Had heard lots of good things about this but was left feeling vaguely disappointed as I found it slightly dull and more than a bit confusing as the perspective kept changing but there was no indication whose perspective we were reading.)
Pride and Prejudice Variations
No Other Way – Ola Wegner (Pride & Prejudice variation. Watched the BBC version with the kids and felt the need to revisit some of the variations I’d read. With some distance, this wasn’t quite as good as I’d remembered, but still a pleasant read.)
To Conquer Mr Darcy – Abigail Reynolds (An old favourite P&P variation. Love this author’s work.)
Her Unforgettable Laugh/Laughter Through Trials/The Laughter Of Love – Linda S. Thompson (Another P&P author whose work I really like. A few jarring anachronisms in terms of speech, but generally quite a good trilogy.)
Memory: Lasting Impressions – Linda Wells (Another P&P variation that is an old favourite. This trilogy captures the meeting of the young Elizabeth and Darcy and asks what if they’d met before their characters were fully formed?)
Romance
Iris Is More Than Okay – Natalie Cooper (Audiobook. Picked this up as a freebie on Audible and assumed it would be a bog standard RomCom. Although it has clear elements of this genre, it had a lot more substance than I’d anticipated and some interesting plot twists along the way. Thoroughly enjoyed it.)
Book of the Month?
This is another feminist history that I will be recommending to anyone who is prepared to listen to me. It is so easy to think that we live in a time that is more enlightened than the past, where women have more equality than they have ever had before and to pat ourselves on the back to look at how far society has traveled. However, memories are short-lived and it astounds me how many rights women once had, which were removed and had to be fought over to simply get back that which was once taken for granted. The more I listen to the way women were conned into thinking there was a 'right' and a 'wrong' way to be a woman, the angrier I get. There's no wonder women have traditionally been at the heart of protests, but it's scary to hear how easy it is for women to forget other marginalised groups in their fight to get their own voices heard. Imagine how powerful a movement might be if all those groups banded together to fight for each other.
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