Urgh.
Too be honest, I’ve had a real non-reading year this year. I expected to do loads while looking after a new baby but Bene was such a worry and so hard to feed, that it was months before I had the umph to actually read at all. It’s taken me forever to get my head back.
No room or time for reviews either to be honest, so I might have to live with just a quick round up starting with book 2 of the year, since apparently I did manage one review.
#2 The Forgotten Garden – Kate Morton 3/5 – okay.
#3 The House at Riverton – Kate Morton 4/5 liked this, atmospheric.
#4 The Distant Hours – Kate Morton 3/5 – liked it but can’t remember it. Had just had Bene!
#5 Small Island – Andrea Levy 4/5 – took me a while to get into (new baby) but has really stayed with me. The depiction of life as a black immigrant in this country after the war and treatment of black soldiers here by the US countrymen, was horrible to read and an eyeopener. I had watched the film, but this was a good, thought provoking book.
#6 Half the Sky 5/5 I really do need to read this again and do it a post of its own. It was compelling and shocking and more uplifting than I imagined it could be.
#7 Rumours – Freya North 3/5 (barely) – oh Freya 🙁 I’m so sad to have basically read the same book over and again in the last few books. I want the feisty characters back, I’m bored of mumsy ones.(Plus I was totally unnerved by this book; it has a Freddie, the only date mentioned was the date of Freddie’s death and a mother who lost a little boy and grieved him. It felt like she had read my blog and if she had, I wish she had said in advance!)
#8 Stormy Weather – Victoria Clayton – 5/5 – still kicking up a quirky, slightly fey, fabulously mixture of character and fun. This one twisted her normal basic outline back on itself and I loved it for that!
#9 The Night Circus – Erin Morgenstern – 5/5 – just an amazing, lyrical, painting of a book, filling the sense full of images and emotion. Impossible to describe. Just read it. It totally haunted me; I was bereft to finish it and seriously considered just starting again straight away.
#10 The Lady of the Rivers – Philippa Gregory 3/5 – a good solid romp through a bit of the War of the Roses via one female character from history. Not amazing but certainly interesting and a good holiday read.
#11 Rivers of London – Ben Aaronovitch – 5/5 Like a mixture of Sam Vimes, Artemis Fowl and Harry Potter – loved, loved, loved this magical, mythological, modern life detective story!
