Friday 13 May 2016

In March & April auntie read

After  you'd gone _ Maggie O Farrell - on offer for a quid at Amazon so bought this for my Kindle. I loved this book but it had lost something for me on re reading, don't all be coming after me for refunds if you'd shelled out the 99p and didn't like it, I still liked it but maybe not quite as much as before.




The Girl from Krakow - Alex Rosenberg - Now I should have loved this, its worthy, set in WW2 which is a period in history I am hugely interested in and I have been to Krakow and I do love when I get the "ooh I've been there" moment in a book. Sadly it didn't do anything much for me at all. Save your 99p on this one.




The Skeleton Cupboard - Tanya Byron - I loved her when she was in all those tv parenting programmes. This was the story of her clinical training. I should have saved my 99p, can you see a theme emerging from my choices of books, I currently have a £2 limit, which is clearly why I am having such a poor run at present.




Where Memories Go - Sally Magnusson. This was ace, a beautifully written memoir of a mother dearly loved as she developed dementia. Hugely poignant and I really felt that Sally did a great job of describing Mamie to us, I can see why she loved her mammy so much. This is so worth reading, please get a copy of this, it was worth way more than the couple of quid it cost me.



Behind closed doors - BA Paris - I liked this, very easy to read and I liked Grace the main character, not the nicest subject matter but I enjoyed it plenty fine.


The lost boy - Camilla Lackberg. Set in Sweden a detective husband and his novelist wife solve crimes. He has a bonkers boss who is quite lovable now and she has a sister where everything bad in the world happens to. Easy crime, not mad graphic but graphic enough for an auntie


According to yes - Dawn French, not even going to describe this, waste not your time, utter shite, even though I got this free from the library, I was robbed


Driving over lemons - Chris Stewart - the story of adventures in Andalucia, they bought a farm and moved there, it was ok


The sea detective - Mark Douglas Home , another 99p Amazon marvel, about sex trafficked Indian girls to the outer Hebrides feuds, as weird as that sounds. I can't wait for my second 99p book from him so will read it next and get it over with. I am having a very poor year in books.



The woman who walked into the sea - Mark Douglas , another disappointment


The milliners secret - Natalie Meg Evans - Paris, couture, ww2 and nazis, actually really enjoyed this, romped through this nae bother at a


Room - Emma Donahue - for book group, it was all right


Balancing Act - Joanna Trollope , not her best but good enough, passed the time quite pleasantly


The secrets of the sea house - Elizabeth Gifford couple find the desiccated corpse of a baby under the floor of the house they are renovating, jeez that sounds properly grim written down, not the worst I've read this month. Lordy Lordy  I am a harsh critic


Ursula's secret - Mari Wilson - another disaster


Spectacles - Sue Perkins- I had high hopes for this but after reading it I liked her a lot less


Shatter the bones - Stuart Mcbride - graphic crime in Aberdeen? Oh yes please, not his finest but jeez I have had dreadful books these last 2 months so was plenty happy with this


Burnt paper sky - Gilly Macmillan- I was really looking forward to this. It started brilliantly and I was so pleased as it was the 18th book of the 2 months and genuinely I had only properly enjoyed the Sally Magnusson one about dementia so felt I was due a break. This has been the best book I've read in aeons, it just got better and better, I loved this. Go and read it.

15 comments:

ADDY said...

Crikey - it'd take me two years to read that lot. You must have a lot of time or read extremely fast. Having said that, I'm just reading The Girl on the Train and can't put it down.

Mac n' Janet said...

Let's be truthful, you get what you pay for, there's a reason Amazon is selling them so cheaply. I've quit a number of books this month. As to books written by celebrity, the less I know about them the better. Only biography I've read in years is William Manchester's massive 3 volume biography of Churchill. I'm through 2 volumes, just up to WWII. With all his faults, and he had many, his biography is fantastic.

martine said...

So sorry you've not found much worth reading. I know the feeling, sometimes I will go weeks and read stuff but not be enthralled or inspired by it. I have spent a couple of months reading Orlando by Virginia Woolf over my breakfast, but have found myself unmoved by it and ended not really knowing what it was all about. We just started reading (me and my daughter reading aloud) the Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake, and I can feel already that it is going to be excellent.

Trish said...

These are the kind of reviews I love to read - no nonsense, to the point. Will take your advice and choose wisely. Sally Magnusson is Magnus' daughter, isn't she?
I read Me Before You by JoJo Moyes - about to be made into a film. It was ok, made me cry. Read it very quickly.
Loved Kate Atkinson A God in Ruins - follow up to Life After LIfe - cracking read.
Just finished Bill Bryson's new one - The Road to Little Dribbling. I have always been a fan so he can do no wrong.

libby said...

Ker-rikey you're a fast reader missy! I have books next to the bed to read and haven't started one of them yet...but we are binge watching Sopranos so that'll be why....how was Africa? xx

London City (mum) said...

You need to read 'The trouble with goats and sheep' - very entertaining and an easy read, am sure you would enjoy it.

LCM x

family Affairs said...

Maggie O Farrell has just released another novel! Lx

Looking for Blue Sky said...

I get almost all my book recommendations for blogs now and also love these reviews: I've added two to my reading list, but the two you love sound a bit heavy for me atm xx

Little Red Hen said...

I've been reading the Stuart McBride series - not sure I like the way it's heading. I've read some Camilla Lackberg and others but I had to ease up on the Nordic Noir - they all seem so dark and grim up there. I shall add some of these to my reading list.

auntiegwen said...

Addy -I read incredibly quickly and I do read every day. I loved Girl on the train, you should read 'burnt paper sky' I think you'd like it
M& j will add Churchill bio to my list
Martine - i met Mervyn Peakes son Sebastian through work a few years ago, v charming
Trish - yes Sally is Magnus daughter, lots of interesting stuff about the family in that. I have read the jo jo and am waiting until Kate and Bill come down to an auntie acceptable price or they come in to the library, have read everything of both of them too, we clearly are women of good taste :)
Li X. - himself loved the Sopranos, Morocco was ace, blog to follow
Lcm - goats and sheep it is then, still waiting for stadiland to come to auntie acceptable price or library, did get the film and we stayed in that apartment block in Berlin! We were too excited, have passed it on to daughter in Germany, so ta much lay
Lu- read a few reviews saying it's not brilliant, thought instructions for a heatwave less than good X
Lfbs - know what you mean, you need to be in the right frame of mind, I do read grim stuff xxxx love to you xxxx
LRH - I love the Nordic noir, I can read quite graphic stuff but yet have to hide my face when it's on the screen, I'm a weird old thing really I am

Expat mum said...

Wow - I haven't heard of any of those, thank you. Bit disappointing that Dawn French's was shite though.

auntiegwen said...

Expat - utter shite, she goes to be a nanny in New York, after being a primary school teacher and failing to get pregnant in Cornwall. Accidentally shags the grandad, the dad and the teenage son and becomes pregnant! No depth to any characters and complete and utter shite from start to finish, shame as I gave loved some of her others

Anonymous said...

I think you may have read as many books this year as I've read in my life....

reworkedonethree said...

Good to see you're still alive and kicking. :)

www.reworkedonethree.wordpress.com

auntiegwen said...

Andrew - I love a book
Reworked onetime- I am indeed alive but mainly sitting rather than kicking :)