A selection of quotes and pictures to represent November’s reading:

commonplace book
noun
a book into which notable extracts from other works are copied for personal use.

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‘I don’t study paintings from a technical viewpoint, because I don’t know how. I believe that a painting should be a work of beauty, something that you never cease wanting to look at. With too much knowledge you can find fault with each one and it takes away the sheer joy.’

The Hidden Girl by Lucinda Riley (2024)

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‘Maybe his conscience got to him,’ suggests Aaron.

‘Maybe,’ I agree. ‘It would be so much easier to go through life if you didn’t have one, don’t you think?’

Fire by John Boyne (2024)

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There are no words. I cannot describe what happened to my brain. I can only tell my feelings, which never stop. Feelings are beyond words; beyond action; beyond reason. They are the only true and constant indicators we ever have in this cruel life.

What Time the Sexton’s Spade Doth Rust by Alan Bradley (2024)

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What I do know is that all happiness had been torn from within me, leaving an open wound. But an open wound needs to be cauterised and I have become an adept surgeon, worthy of the medical school at the city’s university. Recollections serve no purpose and I shook my head to chase them away.

City of Silk by Glennis Virgo (2024)

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But lies are so intriguing, aren’t they? Why people tell them, how little they think through the consequences, how desperate they become when in danger of being found out. To my mind, lies are second only to secrets, and those I find deeply exciting.

The Neighbour’s Secret by Sharon Bolton (2024)

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‘I’ve heard it all before, officer,’ she says sadly to you. ‘When you get to my age, you lose faith in the authorities. Justice is for the rich and powerful.’

Murder in Tinseltown by Max Nightingale (2024)

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‘The heart of a woman is a strange thing,’ wrote Fryn. ‘Human beings, especially women, are bound not only by money, by loneliness, but by the hope that they are needed.’

The Peepshow: The Murders at 10 Rillington Place by Kate Summerscale (2024)

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Ordinary people. She’d forgotten how often he uses that phrase, always with the same…well, what is it, exactly? Curiosity? Fascination? As if ‘ordinary people’ were some kind of exotic species you’d be lucky to spot twice in a lifetime.

The Voyage Home by Pat Barker (2024)

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But few human heads are capable of remaining cool under excitement. Those who are not present think how stupid must have been those who were; those who are reflect afterwards how simple it would have been to do this, that, or the other.

The Dancing Partner by Jerome K. Jerome, from Deadly Dolls: Midnight Tales of Uncanny Playthings (2024)

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I’ve seen photographs of her, naturally, but when you’re young you’re not storing away memories or impressions. Life just washes over you – it happens, uncommented on.

Gabriel’s Moon by William Boyd (2024)

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“We are strangers,” Peter said darkly. “Whom do we know? One – if you’re lucky. Not many more. Looks like we’ve got to learn how we can trust each other. How we can tell…How can we dare…Everything rests on trust between strangers. Everything else is a house of cards.”

Mischief by Charlotte Armstrong (1950)

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Jeanette looked round, seeing their environment with new eyes. ‘You have a veritable store of tales and legends,’ she said.

‘Everyone should. Stories stir men’s minds, hearts and souls until they become part of it. And then they live in the tale and the tale lives in them – and both become immortal.’

The Royal Rebel by Elizabeth Chadwick (2024)

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Eleanor learned another lesson – and that is that the vast majority of people can’t see what’s in front of them. They say they never forget a face, but the same face without makeup, a different setting? John – or Mr Rogers or whoever he really was – was right. It’s easy to become an entirely new person. One only needs audacity…

Poor Girls by Clare Whitfield (2024)

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‘But drawing is one of the best things in the world! I can’t think how you can live in London and not want to draw! Everything is so beautiful and so interesting I could be drawing for ever. And it is so useful; it helps you to remember what you have seen.’

Black Hearts in Battersea by Joan Aiken (1964)

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Favourite book read in November:

Deadly Dolls: Midnight Tales of Uncanny Playthings

Places visited in my November reading:

England, USA, Italy, Germany, Spain, Greece, France

Authors read for the first time in November:

Glennis Virgo, Charlotte Armstrong, Clare Whitfield, Max Nightingale, Adèle Geras, Brian Aldiss, Camilla Grudova, Frederick E. Smith, Robert Aickman, Vernon Lee, Ysabelle Cheung

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Reading notes: November was an excellent month of reading for me. I was able to participate in Novellas in November, Witch Week and Nonfiction November, although I didn’t manage to join in with the other events taking place this month (but I’m halfway through a Margaret Atwood book I picked up for Margaret Atwood Reading Month). Instead, I concentrated on catching up with the books on my NetGalley shelf and am now all up to date for 2024, although I do have some January 2025 releases to read soon.

I have some books lined up for Liz’s Dean Street December, which begins tomorrow, and I’ve already started reading one of them. Also in December, I’ll be posting my annual list of historical fiction to look out for in 2025 as well as choosing my books of the year for 2024!

What did you read in November? Do you have any plans for your December reading?