Angelic Paranoia

What I Just Finished Reading
White Male Stand-Up by Alan Davies. This was a bit hard going because it was quite a bot of "I did this, and then I did that". I did get into it after a while, but his journey into comedy wasn't really that interesting.

Doctor Who: The Adventures After and Doctor Who: The Adventures Before. These are two books of short stories set just after and just before an episode. They were fine although I don't really remember a lot of the episodes in question, although I'm not sure how much difference that made to my enjoyment of them.

The Last Word by Elly Griffiths. The last of the Harbinder Kaur books, although she's hardly in this one, it's mostly the three characters that were introduced two books before. Which was fine because I really liked them and really liked this book. But it was ended in such a way that I can see that there won't be any more with these characters.

Before The Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. I reserved this ebook at the library and have no idea why. It was separate stories of people doing a bit of time travelling in an odd cafe in Japan. It was alright, but not particularly exciting.

Now You Seen Them by Elly Griffiths. Not the next book in the Brighton series - that one is in my library but someone else has it. So I skipped a book, found that this one skipped ten years and it seems like a lot happened in the previous book. I still liked this, but I missed the 1950s.

What I'm Currently Reading
Comedy Rules by Jonathan Lynn. This book is very hard to characterise because he's writing rules of comedy and then an incident that highlights it. Some of them are random and some of them go through a period in his life when he's performing with the Cambridge Footlights or writing Yes, (Prime) Minister. It's interesting, but feels a bit bitty to read.

What I'm Reading Next
The Midnight Hour by Elly Griffiths. The last library book I have in my pile and the next in the Brighton series.

Mirrored from my blog.

What I Just Finished Reading
Mary Neal and the Suffragettes Who Saved Morris Dancing by Kathryn Atherton. I saw this in the Morris Federation newsletter, added it to my wishlist to think about later and then one day it was £2, so I bought it. And it was really interesting. As far as history is concerned, Cecil Sharp is the name you associate with the morris dancing revival, but it was actually Mary Neal who started it, he just had his own opinions and took it over.

The Zig Zag Girl by Elly Griffiths. I enjoyed this. It was nice to go back to the 1950s for a bit of murder. And the murders and characters were interesting.

The Sisters by Rosalind Noonan. I acquired this because I saw it on the front page on the library ebook website and thought it sounded interesting. A few chapters in I had to check why and the summary sounded interesting. Except that it was such a tiny part of the book and there was a whole lot else going on that wasn't.

What I'm Currently Reading
Suffragette Planners and Plotters by Kathryn Atherton. This one was 99p and much like the Mary Neal book, this is about two people who were so instrumental in the WSPU and the Suffragettes that they wouldn't have got going without them, but we only remember the Pankhursts. And the book reminded me of the original Black Friday: a terrible day of police brutality and not a month of sales/'sales'.

What I'm Reading Next
The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths. This is the first in the Harbinder Kaur series, of which I have book four. So whether I like book one or not, it won't take long to get to book four.

Smoke and Mirrors by Elly Griffiths. The second in the Brighton 1950s series. I am looking forward to this one.

Mirrored from my blog.

What I Didn't Finish Reading
A Legacy of Honour by Elizabeth Moon. I picked this because it was the biggest in my dead tree book to read pile. Which is because it's an omnibus of two 450 page books. I made it 93 pages into the first one and although it was fine to read it was just boring. Nothing interesting happened. And judging by the summary it's possible something interesting could happen in the middle of the second book. So I gave up.

Sheepfarmer's Daughter by Elizabeth Moon. This is from the same series as the above, but set a long time later. I didn't make it as far in because it became clear it was going to be all military and fighting and I'm just not interested. I also have book three in the series, so I didn't even need to start that to remove it from my to read pile.

What I Just Finished Reading
Irresponsible Adult by Lucy Dillon. This was the one I'd read the first chapter of last time and didn't think much of it. I looked at the summary again and thought it will probably get interesting. And then by chapter 3 it was so interesting I couldn't put it down. The author has written other books, so that's more to read - although it's general fiction, so has to be read sparingly or it gets too samey.

Trust & Safety by Laura Blackett and Eve Gleichman. I have no idea why this was on my wishlist. I didn't know after I'd read the summary and I still don't know after I've read the book. It was described as a romcom, but it wasn't particularly rom and definitely wasn't at all com, but it was all right.

How Did All This Happen? By John Bishop. I heard recently there's going to be a film based on his life and I know very little about him, so I thought this book will tell me why this comedian specifically. And I still don't know. Nor do I know how I know him, because I've definitely not seen him live and he doesn't really do panel shows (I'm not including Doctor Who here because I knew him before he was on that). The book was interesting, it was just that his story wasn't particularly different from a lot of other comedians really.

What I'm Currently Reading
The Girls Who Went to War by Duncan Barrett and Nuala Calvi. I am really enjoying this. It's about three women who each joined a different branch of the armed forces during the war. It's about what they did and how they got on etc.

What I'm Reading Next
The Hotel Avocado by Bob Mortimer. I don't know anything about this book, but I know that Bob Mortimer is funny. So I'm hoping I like it, but feel like I've had some bad luck with books recently so I am worrying that I won't.

Mirrored from my blog.

What I Just Finished Reading
The Exploits of Arsene Lupin by Maurice LeBlanc. I did enjoy this, but moreso when I sat down and read a whole story in one go (it's a book of short stories). I think it's harder to remember what's going on when you read in bits and this one was particularly tricky because some of it was from Lupin's point of view, but the narrative didn't tell you that.

Don't Laugh, It'll Only Encourage Her by Daisy May Cooper. I only know Daisy May Cooper from Taskmaster, but this was 99p. It was interesting how her family were so poor at one point they'd basically pawned all their possessions.

The Grapples of Wrath by Alice Bell. This was the third in a series. I mostly enjoyed it, but it was about a murder/ghost within the world of wrestling, which I'm really not into at all.

What I'm Currently Reading
Hogfather by Terry Pratchett. Christmas is a good time to read this, and I fancied a re-read. The trouble with trying to pare down my unread books and buying 99p books on Kobo and borrowing library books is that it doesn't leave a lot of space for re-reading books I already own. So I decided it was time to do some re-reading. I have totally forgotten what happens in this one.

What I'm Reading Next
The Book Forger by Joseph Hone. This is a book I borrowed from my sister, purely because I saw it lying around in her house and thought it sounded interesting. But when she lent it to me she said it was hard going. And I noticed it has small text, so I did put it off. But I really need to get round to reading it so I can give it back.

Mirrored from my blog.

First, last year I had a goal of decreasing the number of unread books I have. I started at 38 and am down to 33. I have achieved my goal! But it still feels like a lot of unread books, especially when all the paper ones are in a box under my sofa which is very heavy to pull out.

But as much as I'd like to get that number down, past experience tells me it's not going to be that easy. Especially as one of the books is 7th in a 7 part series and another is 4th in a 4 part series. But since I managed to reduce that number by six this year, next year my plan is to get it down by seven - so to 26.

What I Just Finished Reading
Death and Other Occupational Hazards by Veronika Dapunt. I really enjoyed this. It's about Death taking a sabbatical and then ending up getting involved in investigating murders. It's just a little bit silly - there's a character who's clearly Jesus, but prefers being called the Human Communications Director and whenever he dies it only ever lasts for three days.

Lady Rample and the Lady in the Lake by Shea MacLeod. This was on offer and on my wishlist because I'd read the first book in the series and thought the characters were a bit silly. This was the twelfth and they felt a lot less silly. It was all right, but because it's only a short story the murder investigation wasn't that complicated.

What I'm Currently Reading
Roaring Girls by Holly Kyte. This is about eight women in pre-twentieth century Britain who blazed a trail. It is uplifting, what they achieved, but also depressing in the ere they lived in where women were supposed to be wives and mothers and nothing else, and how long change took. It's also full of footnotes, at the back and in tiny writing, which makes it a bit of a pain to read and requires two bookmarks.

Yardsticks for Failure by Ivo Graham. I started this for times when the other one was too hard to read, like when I'm eating. I thought it would be a quick, easy read, but it's actually quite long and a bit hard-going so far.

What I'm Reading Next
The Exploits of Arsene Lupin by Maurice LeBlanc. I borrowed this from my sister, so really ought to get round to reading it.

Mirrored from my blog.