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.

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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?

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

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

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But it does not do to laugh, however softly, when you are alone. Laughter calls for answering laughter; and when there is none, it is not like silence, but more like a very special kind of sound. A sound that must be listened for, attended to, with every faculty suddenly alert.

Uncle Paul by Celia Fremlin (1959)

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There’s nothing as exciting as a fresh new start when the page is blank and the future is all for the making!

The Appeal by Janice Hallett (2021)

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It was growing dark now. How the years had flown. He had not always been a prisoner of this unwieldy, diseased body. He had been a golden youth; he had known glory upon glory. The world had celebrated him. He had thought himself immortal. How God makes fools of Man…

Henry VIII: The Heart and the Crown by Alison Weir (2023)

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“It is only that I dislike the whole notion of subordination. The corporal lurks in almost every bosom, and each man tends to use authority when he has it, thus destroying his natural relationship with his fellows, a disastrous state of affairs for both sides. Do away with subordination and you do away with tyranny…”

The Ionian Mission by Patrick O’Brian (1981)

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‘But to me the great interest of a case is not in material clues, like a bright little puzzle-box with all the pieces numbered and of a different colour. No! To me it lies in the human mind, the human behaviour: if you like, the human soul.’

He Who Whispers by John Dickson Carr (1946)

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“The illusion that freedom is the prerogative of one’s own particular race is fairly widespread. Dr Gerard was wiser. He knew that no race, no country and no individual could be described as free. But he also knew that there were different degrees of bondage.”

Appointment with Death by Agatha Christie (1938)

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We’re all a collection of stories, she had thought afterwards. Some good, some not so good. The question was, how did you allow a new story in, when just one of your stories already took up too much space?

Night Train to Marrakech by Dinah Jefferies (2023)

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‘The world will be very different,’ said Mr. Femm, slowly, ‘when all the people have been cleared out of it, and not before. Men and women do not change. Their silly antics are always the same. There will always be a few clever ones, who can see a yard or two in front of their noses, and a host of fools who can see nothing, who are all befuddled, who pride themselves on being virtuous because they are incompetent or short-sighted.’

Benighted by J.B. Priestley (1927)

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Favourite books read in September:

Uncle Paul and Appointment with Death

Authors read for the first time in September:

Celia Fremlin, J.B. Priestley

Places visited in my September reading:

England, Israel, Jordan, Greece, Morocco

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Reading notes: This was another good month of reading for me, although I didn’t manage to get to everything I had hoped to read. I was pleased to add some different countries to this year’s ‘places visited’ and the two new authors I read this month (Fremlin and Priestley) are both authors I would like to explore further. As we move into October, I’m looking forward to 1962 Club, hosted by Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings and Stuck in a Book, but otherwise I’m enjoying just reading whatever I want to read, whenever I want to read it!

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

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

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

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‘But we are not allowed to get evidence,’ Temeraire said. ‘And also I am not allowed to kill him, and we are supposed to be polite to him, and all of it for the sake of the Government. I am very tired of this Government, which I have never seen, and which is always insisting that I must do disagreeable things, and does no good to anybody.’

Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik (2006)

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Juliet smiled. ‘None of us can really choose our fate. We only pretend we can. You are wiser than most, Rosaline, for men or women who think they can control Fortune as if she’s a housewife are the fools. She’ll spin and spin whatever we do.’

Fair Rosaline by Natasha Solomons (2023)

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‘Your flight back to New York will be arranged and paid for by me tomorrow, and the rest of your belongings sent after. As you would say perhaps, Coco,’ she ended with eloquence, ‘poetry is life, but life is not all poetry.’

Ibiza Surprise by Dorothy Dunnett (1970)

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“Well, people are like that too. They create a false door – to deceive. If they are conscious of weakness, of inefficiency, they make an imposing door of self-assertion, of bluster, of overwhelming authority – and, after a time, they get to believe in it themselves. They think, and everybody thinks, that they are like that. But behind that door, Renisenb, is bare rock…And so when reality comes and touches them with the feather of truth – their true self reasserts itself.”

Death Comes as the End by Agatha Christie (1944)

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“Once we accept this life is all we have, we can make better use of it.”

The House with the Golden Door by Elodie Harper (2022)

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But love and hate, he thought now, good and evil, lived side by side in the human heart, and not merely in differing proportions in one man and the next, but all good and all evil. One had merely to look for a little of either to find it all, one had merely to scratch the surface. All things had opposites close by, every decision a reason against it, every animal an animal that destroys it, the male the female, the positive the negative.

Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith (1950)

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Time and thinking tame the strongest grief, I was taught, but many a proverb’s promise proves false. I’ve found that thinking only wears away at grief, grinds it deeper, and time only preserves it, encases it in glass for the ages.

Learned by Heart by Emma Donoghue (2023)

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The revelation came slowly and yet instantaneously. As when one searches for a word that stands out of reach of the mind for days – but then, when hearing it, one knows immediately that it is the correct one.

A Lady’s Guide to Scandal by Sophie Irwin (2023)

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‘Not being able to see, I think,’ she said.

‘Being blind, you mean?’

‘No, not that. That would be terribly hard but Homer managed it and our blind piano tuner is one of the serenest people I know. I mean…not seeing because you’re obsessed by something that blots out the world. Some sort of mania or belief. Or passion. That awful kind of love that makes leaves and birds and cherry blossom invisible because it’s not the face of some man.’

A Song for Summer by Eva Ibbotson (1997)

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Favourite books read in August:

A Lady’s Guide to Scandal and The House with the Golden Door

Authors read for the first time in August:

Patricia Highsmith

Places visited in my August reading:

Egypt, Italy, England, US, China, Spain (Ibiza), Austria

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Reading notes: After several slow months of reading, this was a much better month for me and I made a lot of progress with my 20 Books of Summer, but sadly not enough to complete the list! I’m still happy with my result this year – I have read seventeen books, reviewed fifteen of them and am in the middle of reading another two, so I wasn’t too far away from finishing the list. I’ll try again in 2024!

Looking ahead to September, I would normally be putting together a pile of potential reads for the RIP challenge, which I’ve taken part in every year since 2010. However, this challenge now seems to take place almost exclusively on Instagram, which I don’t really use, so I won’t be officially joining in this year. I still have plenty of atmospheric, autumnal books on the TBR, though, and I’m sure I’ll be reading some of them over the next few months!

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How was your August? Do you have any plans for your September reading?

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

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

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We salvage what we can, what truly matters to us, even at the gates of despair.

The Summer Tree by Guy Gavriel Kay (1984)

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One thought crosses Orazio’s mind as he takes in his surroundings at the Palazzo Conscente. Wealth may enable a man to acquire beautiful things but good taste cannot be bought.

Disobedient by Elizabeth Fremantle (2023)

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She was approaching a new land, and she would go ashore. She wanted to be alone. She would probably cry at the sheer beauty of the dream come true. She felt that she would enjoy that cry enormously, and that she would not be able to indulge it comfortably if someone were with her. She had that beautiful feeling that you get when you are in the middle of a very sad but fascinating book, which you are convinced will reduce you to pleasurable tears.

Wonder Cruise by Ursula Bloom (1934)

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Faith was different. Hers was not like other people’s. It had some basic defect, its restless inner needle always roving, from conviction to disbelief to shame and round again, moved about by some unseen current, the source of which she didn’t know. Mam had always said to pay no heed to how it worked; where the needle came to rest was a matter twixt a woman and her soul. In the end it was deeds that counted.

The Witching Tide by Margaret Meyer (2023)

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That meant that I could choose any I wished. Not that it could be better than my real name, but it was interesting to think what I would call myself. The problem was that once you had a name, even if it was the most terrible one in the world, it belonged to you. And often it was the first thing that people would know about you. So to try and unstick yourself from whatever it was was far more difficult than it sounded.

Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt by Lucinda Riley and Harry Whittaker (2023)

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Favourite book read in July:

Wonder Cruise

Authors read for the first time in July:

Ursula Bloom, Margaret Meyer, Harry Whittaker

Places visited in my July reading:

Fictional world of Fionavar, England, Italy, Malta, France, Germany, Norway, Siberia

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Reading notes: I only managed to read another five books from my 20 Books of Summer list this month, but one of them (Atlas) was so long it felt like the equivalent of two normal sized books! I’ll see how many more I can read from my list in August but I think 15 is a more realistic target now than all 20.

What have you been reading in July? Do you have any plans for August?

A selection of quotes to represent June’s reading:

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

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“I rather like being a detective,” she said with modesty. “You see, I’ve been to see so many murder mysteries, in the movies, but I’ve never had a – er – chance at the real thing. It’s gruesome” – she refrained from looking at Mayhew – “but fascinating. Fascinating.”

The Cat Saw Murder by Dolores Hitchens (1939)

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“Are kings, soldiers, and diplomatists exceptions to the general rule of humanity? Not they! I tell you seriously, if the newspapers of Europe had one and all decided not to take the smallest notice in print of the war between France and Germany, it is my firm conviction the war would have come to an end for want of encouragement long since. Let the pen cease to advertise the sword, and I, for one, can see the result. No report — no fighting.”

“Your views have the merit of perfect novelty, ma’am,” said Horace. “Would you object to see them in the newspapers?”

The New Magdalen by Wilkie Collins (1873)

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Mairéad raised her hands. ‘Whichever or whatever. Catholic. Protestant. Hindu, Sikh, Jew. We don’t recognise such fabrications, such man-made labels here. Simply cloaks we wear. Cloaks that conceal our natural form and hide the truth. That we are all born from the one universal energy, draw from the one breath of life.’

The Graces by Siobhan MacGowan (2023)

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‘Well, it is so, isn’t it?’ said Benovek. ‘What ought to be free and running in you is tied up in a knot. And that is because of this strong hate, which is using up nearly all of your energy. As for love, where is it? You have the capacity, no doubt; anybody who can hate can love also…hate is no good, it is a self-destructive emotion.’

The Embroidered Sunset by Joan Aiken (1970)

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Favourite book read in June:

The New Magdalen

Authors read for the first time in June:

Dolores Hitchens

Places visited in my June reading:

England, France, America, Ireland

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Reading notes: This was another slow month of reading for me, but at least the four books that I finished were all from my 20 Books of Summer list so I do still have a chance of completing the list by the end of August, although it’s not very likely! One of my books also counted towards Reading the Meow and I was pleased to be able to take part in that event. Coming up in July, Jo at The Book Jotter will be hosting Six in Six, something I enjoy participating in every year as it’s a great way to look back on our first six months of reading. See Jo’s post for the full details!

How was June for you? What are you planning to read in July?

A selection of words and pictures to represent May’s reading:

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

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One had no right to play about with people’s lives. One should not interfere with their emotions. A word, a look, a smile, a frown, did something to another human being, waking response or aversion, and a web was woven which had no beginning and no end, spreading outward and inward too, merging, entangling, so that the struggle of one depended upon the struggle of the other.

The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier (1957)

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‘You think only men can run estates, yet many widows do, and women must when their men are at war. And all you want from us is male heirs. Too many men with power. Too many women without.’

The Stolen Crown by Carol McGrath (2023)

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You can deal with a mood – a mood is bound to pass, and the more violent it is, the more complete the reaction to it will be. But a calm and reasonable determination is very different, because it’s been arrived at slowly and isn’t likely to be laid aside.

Unfinished Portrait by Mary Westmacott (1934)

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‘It isn’t so easy, is it, to change who we are by changing where we are. The past has a nasty habit of following us around. I believe it’s called regret.’

‘My father said we should always look forward, not back, that you can’t change the past, but the past can change the future, if you want it to.’

The Last Lifeboat by Hazel Gaynor (2023)

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The things you found in the mud went inevitably into Murdstone’s hands, but he could never take away the things you nurtured inside. Your memories. Your gifts.

Once a Monster by Robert Dinsdale (2023)

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Favourite books read in May:

The Scapegoat

Authors read for the first time in May:

Robert Dinsdale

Places visited in my May reading:

France, England, the Atlantic Ocean

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Reading notes: I didn’t manage to finish many books in May, for various reasons, but I’m pleased that I at least found time to re-read The Scapegoat, which I’ve wanted to do for years. 20 Books of Summer starts tomorrow and I’m still not sure which book I’ll be picking up first but I’m looking forward to everything on my list. I’m also planning to take part in Reading the Meow later in the month.

How was your May? What are you hoping to read in June?

A selection of words 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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It is quite possible to live happily with a person who does not think as you do about the eternal verities, but it is not possible to live happily with someone who wants the window open when you want it shut, or shut when you want it open, or with someone who likes a fire when you don’t, or doesn’t like it when you do.

The Bird in the Tree by Elizabeth Goudge (1940)

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“Somehow I don’t dare. It’s queer. I’ve always thought that innocent persons who became involved with criminals were absolutely idiotic not to go to the police first thing instead of muddling along, getting in worse stews. But here I am. Afraid – of what I don’t know.”

The So Blue Marble by Dorothy B. Hughes (1940)

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In medicine or in any other enquiry, you didn’t go looking for what you wanted to be true, not least because that way you might miss the truth when it was right in front of you.

Voices of the Dead by Ambrose Parry (2023)

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The shops displayed the most attractive wares; the cafés set out their little tables on either side of the Prado; guitar-players sang to any party of officers who looked as though they might be good for a peseta or two; the ladies of the town paraded in their best silk petticoats, and smartest satin bodices, flirting their fans, setting the long fringes on their skirts swinging with the provocative play of their hips; lemonade-sellers, in sleeveless waistcoats and white kilts, went up and down, doing a roaring trade under the avenues of trees; the gayest mats were hung out as sunblinds, creating a strange medley of bright hues in streets where the houses were already stained every colour of the rainbow.

The Spanish Bride by Georgette Heyer (1940)

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All witnesses, metaphorically, wear black spectacles. They can neither see clearly, nor interpret what they see in the proper colours. They do not know what goes on on the stage, still less what goes on in the audience. Show them a black-and-white record of it afterwards, and they will believe you; but even then they will be unable to interpret what they see.

The Black Spectacles by John Dickson Carr (1939)

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“You did, in fact, everything you set out to do.”

“There’s only one thing that’s more important,” he answered, “and that is, after you’ve done what you set out to do, to feel that it’s been worth doing.”

Random Harvest by James Hilton (1941)

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Billy wonders if the rest of his life will be spent crossing back and forth across the plain, which he has heard described as an empty wasteland but knows to be dense with motion: the motion of ancestors, spirits, the animals that should be here and the animals that shouldn’t, songs, stories, people, goods, water, minerals, the railway, the roads, stock tracks, fire, and the celestial bodies. When he crosses the plain, he both lives inside this density and passes over it.

The Sun Walks Down by Fiona McFarlane (2022)

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Some people tell you that they are not influenced by the atmosphere around them. They are quite mistaken. We are all more or less affected by the spoken or unspoken thoughts of others.

Inquest by Henrietta Clandon (1933)

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“It’s no good going back over the past. It’s the future one has to live for.”

Murder is Easy by Agatha Christie (1939)

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Favourite books read in April:

The Bird in the Tree, The Black Spectacles, Random Harvest and Voices of the Dead

Places visited in my April reading:

England, US, Scotland, Spain, France, Australia

Authors read for the first time in April:

Fiona McFarlane

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Reading notes: My April began with some 1940 novels for 1940 Club, then I seemed to stay around that era for most of the month. I only managed to read one new author, but sometimes it’s comforting to stick to authors you already know and enjoy. I’m starting my May reading with a re-read of one of my favourite Daphne du Maurier books for Heavenali’s DDM Reading Week, but I don’t have any plans other than that.

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