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

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

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“A man cannot fight a disease in his body, but he can fight against wickedness if he is so minded – therefore he must be blamed for wickedness.”

Rosabelle Shaw by D.E. Stevenson (1937)

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“It’s more like my missus’s skein of knitting wool, after one of the kittens has had it, than a decent murder case. I mean, you get hold of one end and start following it up, and all it leads to is a damned knot worked so tight you can’t do a thing with it. Then you grab hold of the other end, and start on that, and what you find is that it’s a bit the kitten chewed through that just comes away in your hand, with the rest of the wool in as bad a muddle as ever.”

They Found Him Dead by Georgette Heyer (1937)

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‘Sometimes it’s as though life is a balance sheet of who you have in your life and who you’ve lost. And very often they aren’t fairly weighted.’

The Household by Stacey Halls (2024)

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It was, Nat thought, like air raids in the war. No one down this end of the country knew what the Plymouth folk had seen and suffered. You had to endure something yourself before it touched you.

A Different Sound, edited by Lucy Scholes (2023) – quote from The Birds by Daphne du Maurier

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Even temporary lovers are apt to leave scars on their departure. Permanent lovers leave a cut that never quite heals.

Caroline England by Noel Streatfeild (1937)

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It was perhaps a paradox that forty years as a criminal barrister had persuaded him to see the best in the worst of people, but then again he had always worked in defence and had learned that although everyone had the capacity to commit murder, even the most cold-blooded killers had a grain of goodness buried somewhere inside them, if you just looked hard enough. Fear, guilt, remorse…it took many forms, but he had never met anyone with no humanity at all.

Close to Death by Anthony Horowitz (2024)

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Even in an unfair battle, there must be some way forward, some missed road to victory. Once one recognises that not all fights are won with square blows and that anything can go, there are no unwinnable fights.

Hungry Ghosts by Kevin Jared Hosein (2023)

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There is perhaps nothing that gives one so strong a sense of theatre from the inside as the sound of invisible players in action. The disembodied and remote voices, projected at an unseen mark, the uncanny quiet offstage, the smells and the feeling that the walls and the dust listen, the sense of a simmering expectancy; all these together make a corporate life so that the theatre itself seems to breathe and pulse and give out a warmth. This warmth communicated itself to Martyn and, in spite of all her misgivings, she glowed and thought to herself, “This is my place. This is where I belong.”

Opening Night by Ngaio Marsh (1951)

~

Favourite book read in April:

Close to Death

Authors read for the first time in April:

Diana Gardner, Penelope Mortimer, Frances Bellerby, Inez Holden, Attia Hosain, Sylvia Townsend Warner (all from A Different Sound), Kevin Jared Hosein

Countries visited in my April reading:

England, Scotland, Trinidad (must do better next month!)

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Reading notes: My reading in the first half of April was dominated by books for 1937 Club; I enjoyed all three of my choices and am now looking forward to 1970 Club in October! I was also pleased that I found time to fit in a book for Reading the Theatre. In May there are no reading events that I’m planning to take part in, so I will focus on catching up with my NetGalley review copies and maybe making some progress with my Classics Club list!

How was your April? What are you planning to read in May?

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

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

~

“If one is young enough one can love anything. I expect that is why people cry when youth confronts them suddenly. It is envy.”

Deadly Duo by Margery Allingham (1949)

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“Everyone always has to have the rational, scientific explanation for something, even if it’s so obviously wrong you could scream.”

Deep Secret by Diana Wynne Jones (1997)

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There are different kinds of human nature, some approaching good, some bad, just as there are different plants in her garden for different needs. Some plants are healing, some are toxic. So it is with humans.

The Book of Secrets by Anna Mazzola (2024)

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Any woman who has ever tried will know without explanation what an unpalatable task it is to dismiss, even when she does not love him, a man who has all the natural and moral qualities she would desire, and only fails in the social. Would-be lovers are not so numerous, even with the best women, that the sacrifice of one can be felt as other than a good thing wasted, in a world where there are few good things.

The Trumpet-Major by Thomas Hardy (1880)

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They could always take lessons, I told him. As could you yourself.

Do you think it would help?

Immeasurably. To live in an ocean of incomprehension is not only terrifying. Dangerous, too.

The Ballad of Lord Edward and Citizen Small by Neil Jordan (2021)

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It is ridiculous to do a thing merely because others have become the slaves of the idea that one has to be “active”. Are there not a thousand things to be attended to which, though much more important, are left undone?

Count Luna by Alexander Lernet-Holenia (1955)

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The strange thing about good people, Eliza had noticed, was the manner in which they saw that same quality everywhere and in everyone, when in truth it is vanishingly rare.

The Fraud by Zadie Smith (2023)

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Of course, I’m always thinking about the future, but without money or guidance, the future isn’t something you choose but rather something that happens.

Water Baby by Chioma Okereke

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“In our job we have to think of everything,” said Welby. “If we miss anything, it’s always the things we miss which matter.”

Impact of Evidence by Carol Carnac (1954)

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Favourite books read in March:

Deep Secret and Count Luna

Authors read for the first time in March:

Diana Wynne Jones, Neil Jordan, Chioma Okereke, Alexander Lernet-Holenia, Zadie Smith

Places visited in my March reading:

England, the Koryfonic Empire, Italy, USA, Wales, Ireland, Nigeria, Jamaica, Austria

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Reading notes: I’m pleased to have read two books for Reading Wales and one for Reading Ireland, as well as trying Diana Wynne Jones for the first time for the March Magics event! 1937 Club is coming up in April – I’ve started one book already and hope to read more. I would also like to join in with Lory’s Reading the Theatre, but that will depend on whether I can find anything suitable on the TBR and how much time I have. I have several NetGalley review copies with April publication dates as well, which I really need to get to before I start falling behind again.

How was your March? What are you planning to read in April?

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

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

~

Most men unconsciously judge the world from themselves, and it will be very generally found that those who sneer habitually at human nature, and affect to despise it, are among its worst and least pleasant samples.

Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens (1839)

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The way a family evolves is very organic, and to introduce a new element so abruptly is dangerous.

Sufferance by Charles Palliser (2024)

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It irritates her when people speak of what they deserve; it’s perfectly obvious that getting what one deserves is not how life works.

The Bone Hunters by Joanne Burn (2024)

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But perhaps I had better explain that an author’s consciousness does not work as smoothly and obediently as many people believe. Some, though not all, characters begin to dominate him, rather than the reverse. They ultimately possess him by creating their own characteristics, dictating their own movements, inventing their own habits. Creatures of the subconscious, they are conceived and grow in spite of, not because of, him.

The Undetective by Bruce Graeme (1962)

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“What I think is a different matter. Maybe I think some rather curious things — but until thinking’s got you somewhere it’s no use talking about it.”

The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie (1929)

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“If one only dared to be frank in this world and tell all one feels, how clear and comprehensible the world would become.”

Clairmont by Lesley McDowell (2024)

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“Don’t science me, Iven. Magic’s just science we don’t understand. What if a man a thousand years ago saw one of the flying contraptions that we have winking about everywhere? He’d think it was magic.”

The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden (2024)

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Being a child is about innocence, about not knowing the realities that adults deal with every day.

Doomed Romances: Strange Tales of Uncanny Love by various authors (2024)
Quote from Could You Wear My Eyes? by Kalamu ya Salaam

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“I’ll admit that my garden now grows hope in lavish profusion, leaving little room for anything else. I suppose it has squeezed out more practical plants like caution and common sense. Still, though, hope does not flourish in every garden, and I feel thankful it has taken root in mine.”

The Reckoning by Sharon Penman (1991)

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What is family? An anchor which holds us in place. It holds us secure in a storm. It holds us back in fair weather. It is a blessing and a burden – for the young, especially, and for those who seek freedom.

One of life’s astonishing moments is when we realise that we have suddenly become that anchor.

The Life of Rebecca Jones by Angharad Price (2002)

~

Favourite books read in February:

The Undetective, The Reckoning, Sufferance and The Warm Hands of Ghosts

Authors read for the first time in February:

Joanne Burn, Bruce Graeme, Lesley McDowell, Angharad Price, Ella D’Arcy, Alice Perrin, Nalo Hopkinson, Kalamu Ya Salaam, Tracy Fahey, V. Castro (last six all from Doomed Romances)

Places visited in my February reading:

England, Switzerland, France, Russia, Canada, Belgium, Wales, India, Jamaica, the Pacific

~

February reading notes: February was a good, varied month of reading for me. I read a Victorian classic, a short story collection, some classic crime, an Agatha Christie thriller, some historical fiction and three books that counted towards #ReadIndies month (as well as the British Library, I was pleased to be able to highlight two much smaller publishers, Bellows Press and Moonstone Press). In March, I’m hoping to take part in Reading Ireland and Reading Wales – in fact, I’ve already made a start! I also want to read at least one or two of the books from the recently announced Walter Scott Prize longlist.

How was your February? Do you have any plans for your March reading?

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

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

~

Or is it, perhaps, the case that the weeks, and the months, and the years are all the time adding, by stealth, and little by little, every bit as much to a memory as they take away? Until, at last, the things that didn’t happen have grown like moss over the things that did; a soft green cushion on which the mind can rest at last?

The Long Shadow by Celia Fremlin (1975)

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Man is a strange being. He always has a feeling somewhere in his heart that whatever the danger he will pull through. It’s just like when on a rainy day you imagine the faint rays of the sun shining on a distant hill.

Silence by Shūsaku Endō (1966)

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‘My last mistress, sir, said that if you give your attention to something beautiful, it will tell you a secret. I think if you’re used to seeing something and know what it is, you might forget that it’s beautiful – not see it at all.’

The Beholders by Hester Musson (2024)

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Like a weaver sorting through threads, she groups the colours: moss green, pale lichen green, the flash of yellow flowers high up on the hills, the inky waters and silver reflections, the blue of the sky – bright blue. A painter’s blue. The colour of spring. She remembers the pink sky the morning they arrived at Lochleven, the castle a dark silhouette reflected on the loch’s surface, like an underwater fortress.

The Tower by Flora Carr (2024)

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Men don’t want to be brothers – they may someday, but they don’t now. My belief in the brotherhood of man died the day I arrived in London last week, when I observed the people standing in a Tube train resolutely refuse to move up and make room for those who entered. You won’t turn people into angels by appealing to their better natures just yet awhile – but by judicious force you can coerce them into behaving more or less decently to one another to go on with.

The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie (1925)

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‘There are moments in history when entire empires, whole branches of the future, rest precariously on the words of a single person. Usually, they’re not even aware of it. They don’t have time to plan, or consider. They simply open their mouths and speak, and the universe takes on a new pattern.’

The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton (2024)

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‘In the absence of an explanation, suspicion festers and people find that they need someone to blame.’

The Spendthrift and the Swallow by Ambrose Parry (2023)

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We must tell the stories of our time so that tomorrow’s children receive them, then pass them on like scrolls in bottles sent down the river.

Cuddy by Benjamin Myers (2023)

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It’s when you least expect it that sorrow returns, like a thief who steals joy.

The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo (2024)

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Women have always been the same throughout the Ages, when every girl becomes, in her turn, the modern girl. Her conduct is not dependent on any period, but on her disposition. It is only the popular definition of morality, and the general acceptance or rejection of any breach, which is topical.

Fear Stalks the Village by Ethel Lina White (1932)

~

Favourite books read in January:

The Long Shadow and Silence

Authors read for the first time in January:

Shūsaku Endō, Hester Musson, Flora Carr, Benjamin Myers

Places visited in my January reading:

England, Japan, Scotland, Greece, China

~

January reading notes: My reading for 2024 got off to a good start in January; I’m particularly pleased that I managed to fit in a book for the Japanese Literature Challenge (Silence), as reading more books in translation is one of my resolutions for this year. In February I need to read my book for the recent Classics Club Spin, which is Thomas Hardy’s The Trumpet Major, and I’m also hoping to join in with #ReadIndies, hosted by Karen and Lizzy.

How was your January? Do you have any plans for your February reading?

For the last time this year…

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

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

~

They repaired and reused everything: nothing was ever thrown away…They shared with their neighbours and pooled their resources. They looked after other families’ children and old folk to enable each other to work and earn. This was what it meant to have community; it was also what it meant to be oppressed in your own country. When tangible things were so sparse, you had at least to leave people their pride and their dreams, their religion and their sultan.

The Black Crescent by Jane Johnson (2023)

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A diamond has many facets: hold it with me facing you and you can see one facet, I another, but they’re both on the same stone. It’s the angle-of-sight question. There may be a third or a fourth angle we know nothing about, meanwhile we both feel something, you aversion, I attraction. That’s a starting-point.

A Footman for the Peacock by Rachel Ferguson (1940)

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‘Besides, we take pride in our traditions, no matter how ridiculous. Indeed, the more absurd the tradition, the more it is cherished.’

‘That makes no sense.’

‘Rationality, being a recent invention, is not widely embraced,’ Eleanor said with a smile.

A Lady to Treasure by Marianne Ratcliffe (2023)

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She thought, how little we know other people, no matter how closely we share our lives. There he is, that stick-in-the-mud who’s never wanted to try anything new, but some hidden part of him has broken open, some adventurous part of him I never knew was there, and maybe he didn’t either.

Restless Dolly Maunder by Kate Grenville (2023)

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“You see, Miss Furnivall, there isn’t only one kind of love, the kind between men and women. There are many different kinds – so many! And unless you can find the kind that you were created for, you won’t be satisfied here below. You will not.”

A Pink Front Door by Stella Gibbons (1959)

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‘Nothing breaks like a heart,’ said Stana, patting her sister on the knee. ‘But nothing mends like it either.’

The Witch’s Daughter by Imogen Edwards-Jones (2023)

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“I hope no one will imagine I’m mocking at detective-story devices. In point of fact, I dote on them. But so long as criminals take them for a model, the police are going to have a very easy time; because, like the wretched Judith, your genuinely murderous addict will dig his cunning and complicated pits for the investigators, only, in the upshot, to fall head first into one of them himself.”

We Know You’re Busy Writing… by Edmund Crispin (2023)

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Favourite book read in December:

A Pink Front Door and A Lady to Treasure

Authors read for the first time in December:

Kate Grenville

Places visited in my December reading:

Morocco, England, Australia, Russia

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Reading notes: I didn’t finish as many books in December as I’d hoped, but I’ve also been immersed in two very thick books which are taking a long time to get through, so that’s my excuse! I’m pleased that I managed to read two books for Dean Street December and I’m also almost up to date with reviewing all of my 2023 reads, with only two reviews left to post in January.

Tomorrow I’ll be posting my reading resolutions for 2024, but meanwhile I’d like to wish you all a Happy New Year!

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.

~

Kosuke Kindaichi was reading in bed. Despite how slovenly it might appear, he found that if he did not do so in bed, then nothing he read actually made an impression.

The Devil’s Flute Murders by Seishi Yokomizo (1953)

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“Dad only wanted us to be good people, Leslie and I, that was all, he was only doing the right thing.”

“What he thought was the right thing.”

“What else is there?”

The Progress of a Crime by Julian Symons (1960)

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‘And I didn’t break in, did I? Sure, didn’t I see you sitting there through the window? Reading your book. You’re one of those, I suppose.’

‘One of what?’

‘Readers.’

I don’t know how to respond to this remark, which appears to be some form of accusation.

Water by John Boyne (2023)

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18:29 Celia wrote:
‘Evil happens when good people do nothing.’ You have a whistle, Denise, and a duty to blow it.

The Christmas Appeal by Janice Hallett (2023)

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There is no explaining this simple truth about life: you will forget much of it. The painful things you were certain you’d never be able to let go? Now you’re not entirely sure when they happened, while the thrilling parts, the heart-stopping joys, splintered and scattered and became something else.

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett (2023)

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Love does funny things to people, when it serves to harm and not heal. It makes fools of the most rational of men, and the kindest of women cruel. It makes one think most strangely. It changes a person.

From Widows Walk by Susan Stokes-Chapman
The Winter Spirits by various authors (2023)

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‘It’s one of the universe’s untouchable truths,’ he continued, as if lecturing. ‘Beauty exists. And is the most precious thing there is. And yet none of us can truly define it or agree what it actually is. But when you see it, it casts a spell on you.’

The Figurine by Victoria Hislop (2023)

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Garry reminded himself that politicians were experts in neatly avoiding questions they didn’t like. He waited, knowing silence sometimes worked better than insistence.

The Fake Wife by Sharon Bolton (2023)

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The house only isn’t enough, you see. It has to have the setting. That’s just as important. It’s like a ruby or an emerald. A beautiful stone is only a beautiful stone. It doesn’t lead you anywhere further. It doesn’t mean anything, it has no form or significance until it has its setting. And the setting has to have a beautiful jewel to be worthy of it. I take the setting, you see, out of the landscape, where it exists only in its own right. It has no meaning until there is my house sitting proudly like a jewel within its grasp.

Endless Night by Agatha Christie (1967)

~

Favourite books read in November:

Water and The Winter Spirits

Authors read for the first time in November:

Julian Symons, Andrew Michael Hurley, Catriona Ward, Susan Stokes-Chapman

Places visited in my November reading:

England, Ireland, USA, Italy, Greece, Japan, Scotland

~

Reading notes: November was another good month of reading for me. I read two books for Novellas in November, joined in with Read Christie 2023, and caught up with some more of my NetGalley review copies. I was sorry not to take part in any of the other events taking place in the book blogging world, such as Nonfiction November, but there just wasn’t time. Hopefully next year!

In December, I’m planning to join in with Dean Street December, hosted by Liz at Adventures in Reading, Running and Working from Home and I would like to finish my Classics Club Spin book, Nicholas Nickleby – I’m not going to manage it by the deadline, though, which is Sunday! Otherwise, I’ll just see what I feel like reading.

How was your November? Do you have any plans for your December reading?

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

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

~

But…the world is a difficult and dangerous place, they say. Everywhere it is the same. They say that over the seas, to the west and to the east, there is very much beauty: in the land, and the weather, the plants and the animals; it seems very strange and magical. But even in these different and magical places, the people are the same.

The Water Child by Mathew West (2023)

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‘Discoveries come readily when your mind is joyful and open.’

The Wayward Sisters by Kate Hodges (2023)

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‘I suppose duty is facing each situation as it arises,’ he went on, ‘doing what’s right, what’s best all round, I mean for the people involved in each circumstance, the people who’ll be affected by what you do.’

Due to a Death by Mary Kelly (1962)

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She dreamed, without being really asleep, of arctic seas, of monstrous tunnels through hillsides fringed with icicles. Her travelling companion, who had grown a long tail and a pair of horns, offered her cakes the size of grand pianos and coloured scarlet, blue, and green; when she bit into them she found they were made of snow.

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken (1962)

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‘I felt she spoke the truth, but how will I ever know? Once you learn that someone has built a life on lies – it’s impossible to pick out the truths.’

The Black Feathers by Rebecca Netley (2023)

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The Rector, coming into the room and learning what was the subject under discussion, said that since the world began each generation had condemned the manners and customs of the next.

The Nonesuch by Georgette Heyer (1962)

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People over forty can seldom be permanently convinced of anything. At eighteen our convictions are hills from which we look; at forty-five they are caves in which we hide.

From Bernice Bobs Her Hair by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Where All Good Flappers Go by various authors (2023)

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It’s a paradoxical state of mind that afflicts the magician’s audience – they both want and do not want to be fooled.

The Murder Wheel by Tom Mead (2023)

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But what did the opinion of the world matter beside my own conscience? What course of action would allow me to look in the mirror with any degree of confidence or pride?

Scarlet Town by Leonora Nattrass (2023)

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Favourite books read in October:

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and Scarlet Town

Authors read for the first time in October:

Mary Kelly, Rebecca Netley, Kate Hodges – and twelve more new authors all from Where All Good Flappers Go (review to follow soon!)

Places visited in my October reading:

England, Portugal, America, Scotland

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Reading notes: October was a good month for me in terms of reading. I read three books for 1962 Club and six more from my NetGalley shelf – now I just need to catch up on writing the reviews!

November is always a very busy month in the book blogging world, with Nonfiction November, Novellas in November, German Literature Month and Margaret Atwood Month all taking place at the same time. I’m sure there are others that I’ve missed! I have some novellas lined up to read this month, but not sure what else I’ll have time for.

How was your October? Do you have any plans for your November reading?