After the shameful amount of books read in September I am pleased to
disclose that October was a big improvement. I started slim, as in
volume size.
The Sign Of The
Sugared Plum by Mary Hooper.
I picked this one up
at the Tesco charity bookshelf. At first I thought it might be a
children’s book but apparently not. An account of life in London
during the Great Plague. Moderately engaging and not recommended but
at least it got me reading again. Otherwise avoid.
More Tesco finds –
The Finding by Nina Bawden. Underwhelming.
Yet another Tesco
find – My Folks Don’t Want Me to Talk About Slavery edited by
Belinda Hurmence. A previous owner must have picked this one up at an
estate in the Southern States of the USA. It was a quick read,
interesting, part of an academic research project. My inbuilt
cynicism led to some distrust of the editing process but I still
found it interesting.
Ganching led me to
Three Hours by Rosamund Lupton. She mentioned it in a blog and
described it as something she read in a 24-hour period. I had a copy
(Tesco again) and being in the mood for a binge read I found it to be
just the job. 24 hours later – enjoyable read to be returned to
Tesco charity bookshelves at my earliest convenience.
So that’s me back
on track at the reading again. I was longing to read the new
Elizabeth Strout, Tell Me Everything. According to the reviews it
brings together many beloved Strout personalities including Olive
Kitteridge, Lucy Barton and Bob Burgess. My only difficulty was –
I hadn’t read The Burgess Boys. Well, I have now and I like it
very much. Still haven’t begun Tell Me Everything but it is sitting
there, waiting for me – a brand new copy. Long time before it ends
up on Tesco’s charity bookshelf.
The last book I
finished was Dirty Linen by Martin Doyle. I bought my copy in St
George’s Market from yer man who runs Belfast Books. His is not a
store I’d normally be in but the book was half-price and I’d wanted to read it. Yer man said it was a ‘tough read’ and I’m
not sure what he meant by that. But there is this – I’ve often
thought that the accounts of the people who died during the period
of our Irish history that is called ‘The Troubles’ has been
fairly well documented. What is less well documented are the stories
of the injured and the bereaved. Martin Doyle’s book went some way
to bring some of those stories to the fore.
I went to an event at Seamus Heaney HomePlace in Bellaghy on Friday evening. The writer
Colum McCann in Conversation. It wasn’t quite a full house but it
was nearly. Novel readers must be mostly ladies of a certain age. I’d
guess the youngest person there was around forty-five. I did not tell
the author that I’ve only read one of his books so far and that I
picked it up from the Tesco charity bookshelf. Let The Great World
Spin. Since then I acquired two more novels and bought another two at
HomePlace. It was a good evening.
I’ll be taking
Colum McCann on my holiday to Norfolk and London. This Side of
Brightness. Already packed.
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