It’s time for R.I.P. XIII…

August 28, 201824 Comments

September is almost here and that means it’s time to prepare for one of my favourite reading events: Readers Imbibing Peril (better known as R.I.P), which is hosted this year by Capricious. The idea of R.I.P. is to spend September and October reading books from the following categories:

Mystery, Suspense, Thriller, Dark Fantasy, Gothic, Horror and Supernatural.

There are different levels to choose from, including a one-book option for those readers who don’t want to commit to too much. As usual, I am signing up for Peril the First, which means:

Read four books, any length, that you feel fit (our very broad definitions) of R.I.P. literature. It could be Stephen King or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Shirley Jackson or Tananarive Due…or anyone in between.

The challenge is now in its thirteenth year; my first R.I.P was R.I.P V in 2010 and I haven’t missed one since! I usually end up reading more than four books that fit the R.I.P. categories and although I don’t make a list and rigidly stick to it, I do like to put together a selection of possible choices.

Here are some of the R.I.P-ish books I have on my TBR:

The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell was a birthday present from my sister in May, but I haven’t read it yet as I’ve been saving it for R.I.P. I’m sure it will be perfect.
The Craftsman by Sharon Bolton is one of the books I put on my 20 Books of Summer list and haven’t managed to read (I think 15/20 is the most I can hope for this summer). I love Sharon Bolton’s books and still have one of her others, Blood Harvest, to read as well.
A Gathering of Ghosts is Karen Maitland’s latest novel and I have a review copy which I really need to read soon.

Jezebel’s Daughter by Wilkie Collins is the only book on my Classics Club list that looks suitable for R.I.P.
Bleeding Heart Square by Andrew Taylor would also count towards my What’s In A Name? challenge – a book with a shape in the title.
And I already have Thunder on the Right lined up for September because Mary Stewart will be featuring in Jane’s Birthday Book of Underappreciated Lady Authors.

I loved The Strangler Vine by MJ Carter, so The Printer’s Coffin is high on my list for this year’s R.I.P.
So is The Sussex Downs Murder by John Bude, a British Library Crime Classic which will be my first book by Bude.
I also want to read Cruel as the Grave by Sharon Penman, the second book in her Justin de Quincy mystery series.

The Case of the Gilded Fly by Edmund Crispin is one of the books I’m considering for the upcoming 1944 Club, and possibly an Agatha Christie as well.
I often read one of Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce mysteries during R.I.P. and Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew’d is the next one in the series.
And having read Allan Massie’s Death in Bordeaux last year, I would like to read Dark Summer in Bordeaux soon too.

Those are just some of the books I could decide to read – I do have more on my TBR, so don’t be surprised if you see me reading something I haven’t mentioned here. I like to have plenty of choice!

Will you be taking part in R.I.P. this year? Have you read any of the books I’ve listed above?

20 Books of Summer – 2018

May 30, 201837 Comments

This time last year I decided to take part in 20 Books of Summer hosted by Cathy at 746 Books. It’s a simple idea – to make a list of twenty books (or fifteen or ten) that you would like to read during the summer months – but it’s more difficult to complete than you might expect! I managed to read 16 out of 20 last year, which I was still quite pleased with, but I’m looking forward to trying again this year.

Here are my twenty books for 2018, in no particular order:

1. The Story Keeper by Anna Mazzola

2. Desperate Remedies by Thomas Hardy

3. The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

4. A Game of Hide and Seek by Elizabeth Taylor

5. The Way of All Flesh by Ambrose Parry

6. Fool’s Errand by Robin Hobb

7. The Poison Bed by EC Fremantle

8. Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim

9. For the Immortal by Emily Hauser

10. Post of Honour by RF Delderfield

11. The King’s Witch by Tracy Borman

12. Marking Time by Elizabeth Jane Howard

13. Lamentation by CJ Sansom

14. The Bull from the Sea by Mary Renault

15. Tapestry of War by Jane MacKenzie

16. Don’t Look Now and Other Stories by Daphne du Maurier

17. My Beautiful Imperial by Rhiannon Lewis

18. Fortune’s Fool by David Blixt

19. The Wardrobe Mistress by Patrick McGrath

20. The Craftsman by Sharon Bolton

I’ve included a mixture of review copies (from NetGalley and from authors/publishers), books from my Classics Club list and some that I just want to read. I will need to read these twenty books between 1 June – 3 September, but I’m sure I will find myself reading others that aren’t on the list too!

Have you read any of these? Will you be taking part in 20 Books of Summer this year?

Some challenges for 2018: What’s in a Name? and Historical Fiction

December 21, 201717 Comments

It’s that time of year again when bloggers are making plans for next year’s reading and when reading challenges for 2018 are being announced. I don’t take part in many challenges these days, but there are two that I’m interested in for next year.

The first is a challenge which I used to enjoy but haven’t participated in since 2014. This is the What’s In A Name? challenge, hosted by Charlie of The Worm Hole. The challenge involves reading one book from each of six categories during 2018. I like the sound of the categories Charlie has chosen for us for next year, so I thought it would be fun to join in.

I have listed the categories below, followed by one or two possibilities. I don’t really want to be adding more books to my TBR so I’m going to try to choose from books that I already own.

- The word ‘the’ used twice (The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden; The Girl in the Photograph by Kate Riordan)
- A fruit or vegetable (The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck)
- A shape (Bleeding Heart Square by Andrew Taylor )
- A title that begins with Z (Zofloya, or The Moor by Charlotte Dacre)
- A nationality (The English Girl by Katherine Webb; The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende, The Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter)
- A season (The Winter Prince by Cheryl Sawyer; The Corn King and the Spring Queen by Naomi Mitchison; The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell)

The second challenge I’m signing up for is one I like to partipate in every year, even though it’s not exactly a ‘challenge’ for me! The Historical Fiction Reading Challenge is hosted by Passages to the Past and has six different reading levels to choose from:

20th Century Reader – 2 books
Victorian Reader – 5 books
Renaissance Reader – 10 books
Medieval – 15 books
Ancient History – 25 books
Prehistoric – 50+ books

As historical fiction is my favourite genre, I will be aiming for the Prehistoric level again in 2018.

I will be keeping track of both of these challenges on this page.

Will you be taking part in either of these?

My Commonplace Book: October 2017 – and R.I.P. XII summary

November 1, 201711 Comments

A selection of words and pictures to represent October’s reading

My Commonplace Book

commonplace book
Definition:
noun
a notebook in which quotations, poems, remarks, etc, that catch the owner’s attention are entered

Collins English Dictionary

You know, the Church has a doctrine called just war. St Thomas Aquinas wrote on it, though the doctrine is much older than that. A State going to war must have tried all other options, must have justice on its side and have an honourable purpose in mind. None of Henry’s wars has been like that. Though he claims to be God’s representative on earth.”

Heartstone by CJ Sansom (2010)

She censured his conduct in having given the man money instead of knocking him down. “Which I am persuaded you might have done, because Priscilla’s brother told us that you are a Pink of the Fancy,” she said severely.

“I shall be obliged to you,” said Sir Charles, with asperity, “if you will refrain from repeating the extremely improper remarks made to you by Priscilla’s cub of a brother!”

Snowdrift and Other Stories by Georgette Heyer (2016)

Fingal’s Cave, Island of Staffa, Scotland

If anyone cares, Fingal, I am told, is a mythical Celtic giant. His cave is nearly seventy feet high and forty feet wide at the entrance, with the sea running inland to its full length of over two hundred feet. If anyone cares.

To me, it was a black booming vault lined with columns, grey, rose, lilac and charcoal, of natural basalt. Uneven, crowded columns hung from the roof and stuck up through the opaque peacock water, thinning here to bright green, which lay surging and lapping below us, darkening as it moved away from the sunlight and into the depths of the cave.

Rum Affair by Dorothy Dunnett (1968)

He never ate the lower leaves: the top appeared more succulent. Whether he knew or not that this destroyed any possibility of flowering is a question that it is no good asking a rabbit. He seemed indifferent, in any case; there are few things more equable than the expression of a rabbit nibbling the head off a prize bloom.

Verdict of Twelve by Raymond Postgate (1940)

“Why, what ails you?” asked he of Edmond. “Do you fear any approaching evil? I should say that you were the happiest man alive at this instant.”

“And that is the very thing that alarms me,” returned Dantès. “Man does not appear to me to be intended to enjoy felicity so unmixed; happiness is like the enchanted palaces we read of in our childhood, where fierce, fiery dragons defend the entrance and approach; and monsters of all shapes and kinds, requiring to be overcome ere victory is ours. I own that I am lost in wonder to find myself promoted to an honor of which I feel myself unworthy – that of being the husband of Mercedes.”

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (1844)

19th-century illustration of Cinchona calisaya

He nearly laughed. “Of course you’ll go. You must. People are like bees. They’re all workers who could be queens, with the right stuff, but once a queen-making has begun, it can’t be reversed. A bee that’s halfway a queen can’t turn back into a worker. She’d starve. She must keep growing and then she must leave.”

The Bedlam Stacks by Natasha Pulley (2017)

He went on looking at the medal, head down. I felt a poignant memory of those desolate patches of disillusion which are the shocks of growing up. The discovery that one lived in a world which could pay honour where honour was not due, was just such a one. The values were rocked, the dependable was suddenly flimsy, the solid became hollow, gold turned to brass, there was no integrity anywhere…

Chocky by John Wyndham (1968)

Sir Mordred by H. J. Ford, from King Arthur- The Tales of the Round Table by Andrew Lang, 1902

Mordred did not reply. He had a habit of quenching silences. He had discovered that if you failed to answer an awkward question, people rarely asked it twice. He did not know that this was a discovery normally only made in later life, and by some weaker natures not at all.

The Wicked Day by Mary Stewart (1983)

Favourite books read in October: The Count of Monte Cristo, Snowdrift and Other Stories and Chocky

The end of October also meant the end of this year’s R.I.P Challenge.

I was aiming to read four books for R.I.P. and managed six, so I’m pleased with that! Here are the books I read:

1. Hamlet, Revenge! by Michael Innes
2. As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust by Alan Bradley
3. Death in Bordeaux by Allan Massie
4. The Man of Dangerous Secrets by Maxwell March
5. Heartstone by CJ Sansom
6. Verdict of Twelve by Raymond Postgate

Have you read any of these? How was your October?

20 Books of Summer – the end

September 3, 201718 Comments

This is the last day of the 20 Books of Summer challenge hosted by Cathy at 746 Books. This has been the first year I’ve participated and although I haven’t been entirely successful with it, I’ve still enjoyed taking part. It’s a simple idea – to make a list of twenty books at the start of the summer and then read them between 1st June and 3rd September – but not that easy when you keep getting distracted by other books! I’ve read more than twenty books this summer, but only sixteen that were on my original list.

Here are the sixteen, with links to my reviews:

1. The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
2. To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey
3. Long Summer Day by RF Delderfield
4. The Mad Ship by Robin Hobb
5. Beneath a Burning Sky by Jenny Ashcroft
6. The Last Son’s Secret by Rafel Nadal Farreras
7. The Silk Merchant’s Daughter by Dinah Jefferies
8. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (re-read)
9. A Desperate Fortune by Susanna Kearsley
10. Dead Woman Walking by Sharon Bolton
11. For the Winner by Emily Hauser
12. Shadow of the Moon by M.M. Kaye
13. Crimson and Bone by Marina Fiorato
14. The Wonder by Emma Donoghue
15. By Gaslight by Steven Price
16. The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard (review coming soon)

And these are the four I didn’t manage to read in time:

17. The Fortune of War by Patrick O’Brian
18. The Reckoning by Sharon Penman
19. The Wicked Day by Mary Stewart
20. Heartstone by CJ Sansom

I’m still planning to read the remaining books (in fact I’m halfway through one of them now) but September seemed to arrive very quickly!

Did you take part in 20 Books of Summer too? How did you do?

R.I.P. XII is here!

August 31, 201713 Comments

It’s that time of year again when one of my favourite reading challenges – R.I.P. (Readers Imbibing Peril) – is announced. The event is now in its twelfth year and has moved to a new home at Estella’s Revenge and My Capricious Life, where our hosts will be Andi and Heather. Everything else is staying the same, but if you need a reminder, the idea of R.I.P. is to read books from the following genres during September and October:

Mystery.

Suspense.

Thriller.

Dark Fantasy.

Gothic.

Horror.

Supernatural.

There are multiple levels of participation, including a one-book option for those who don’t want a big commitment, but as usual I am signing up for Peril the First, which involves reading at least four books from the above categories. I have put together a list of possibilities, taken from books which are already on my TBR.

Verdict of Twelve by Raymond Postgate
The Crow Garden by Alison Littlewood
The Printer’s Coffin by MJ Carter
White Corridor by Christopher Fowler
Hamlet, Revenge! by Michael Innes
The Mummy Case by Elizabeth Peters
Heartstone by CJ Sansom
As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust by Alan Bradley
Death in Bordeaux by Allan Massie
Savage Magic by Lloyd Shepherd
Bleeding Heart Square by Andrew Taylor
Blood Harvest by Sharon Bolton

I don’t expect to read all of these, but I like to have plenty to choose from. I’m sure I’ll also find myself picking up other books that aren’t on my list!

Are you taking part in R.I.P. this year? What will you be reading?

20 Books of Summer – 2017

May 30, 2017May 30, 201740 Comments

For the last few days I’ve been trying to make up my mind whether or not to take part in this year’s 20 Books of Summer, hosted by Cathy at 746 Books. The rules are simple – to make a list of twenty books (or fifteen or ten) you want to read this summer and then read as many of them as you can between 1st June and 3rd September – but as I’m not usually very successful at sticking to lists, that’s why I’ve been hesitant about joining in. It always looks fun, though, so I’ve decided to give it a try this time!

My list is a mixture of review copies (NetGalley and physical), the remaining books I need to read for the Classics Club, library books – I’ll have to read those first – and some that I’ve simply been looking forward to reading. I probably won’t read all of them and will almost certainly find myself drawn to other books as well, but I’ll see how it goes.

Here are my twenty books, in no particular order:

1. The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

2. To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey

3. Long Summer Day by RF Delderfield

4. The Mad Ship by Robin Hobb

5. Beneath a Burning Sky by Jenny Ashcroft

6. The Fortune of War by Patrick O’Brian

7. Heartstone by CJ Sansom

8. The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard

9. The Last Son’s Secret by Rafel Nadal Farreras

10. The Silk Merchant’s Daughter by Dinah Jefferies

11. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (re-read)