Category: Finished Reads

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Starting the Summer

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It’s the May Bank Holiday Weekend – although I will admit that I woke this morning wondering if it really was a bank holiday or should I be getting up to go to work, but I think that’s a normal reaction.  Anyway – May, Summer – I had a productive day on Saturday – I had my car’s NCT at 9am – What was I thinking of??  9am!  on a Saturday!  A few years ago, I got caught in traffic and ever since then I’ve arrived early – so I was done and dusted at the time the appointment was due – how cool was that!  Anyway – I didn’t pass but didn’t exactly fail it either – a light wasn’t working so I’d to get it fixed and I could go back for a visual inspection.  I went to Ikea and spent like it was going out of fashion on knick knacks – I only went for cake and a charger cable but why stop there??  Anyway – went to the garage to see when they could fit me in to get the light sorted – as luck would have it they took a quick look and it seems nothing needed to be done – it was simply that something had popped out of place and once it was put back, all was well – so straight back to the NCT centre, had the visual, got my certificate.  I’m really pleased as the car is 21 yrs old and she’s still going grand!

I came home had cake and decided that the weather had been fine long enough to cut the grass or in my case, dandelion patch – and that’s what I did – it makes such a difference it really does – and I took it as my cue to move the garden bench – in the colder months it’s kept on the path by the wall of the house, but during the summer I move it so that it’s back is to the shed and it’s sheltered by the honeysuckle.  Yesterday (Sunday) there were noises in the garden – I was terrified it was a rodent having some sort of shouting match but it was a load of starlings feeding on whatever was coming through on the garden – it was fascinating to see.  Also when I say starlings – that’s me having a guess…

I actually spent all of yesterday (Sunday) indoors because I’d finally gotten time to read and this was a book I couldn’t put down, so that was me ignoring the outside world for a few hours.  I am actually really happy about that – it’s not that it doesn’t happen that often but I’m a bad reader and it takes me an age to get through books but this was one of the few where I simply had to keep reading until it was finished – the disappointment in it, was that it finished and as it was alluded to the book – that there is always an aftermath and we don’t get to see it.  Anyway – the book was The Wilding by Ian McDonald – it’s categorised as horror but I’m not a horror reader so I’m not sure how deep into the genre it is – I can’t say it was fantasy although it did contain the fantastical – it had the catastrophe and the survival flight or fight – funnily it reminds me of John Wyndham.  Sorry that’s just my thoughts running away with me – but now that the book is finished I’ll have to bring it back to the library.

Keeping me company while I read was the neighbours cat – she came in and curled up on the desk chair and was most reluctant to leave when I eventually evicted her at 8pm.  She’s also the reason I thought rodent in the garden rather than birds – I’ve seen her on occasion passing by with a mouth full of mouse!

This morning I had notions about this post – there was even thoughts of a photo but that didn’t happen ’cause I tend to eat the food and rarely remember to photograph it even if I had intended to do so.  So starting the summer – breakfast outside on the bench listening to the birds and as I was a bit late it also involved a child having great fun playing in their garden somewhere down the road.  The sunshine and the not warm but not cold morning – a lovely air that refreshes but doesn’t invigorate too much.  It’s the one thing that I love – to sit out on the bench having breakfast listening for the sounds and the silence.  If the weather holds over the next while, it will be a mix of the mornings and evenings after work, listening to all of the voices enjoying the outside – looking around and seeing how the flowers are growing and changing (flowers = raspberries, black currants, agapanthus, lavender, holly and of course dandelions).  There is something so peaceful about just sitting out when the weather allows.  So now that the bench is in Summer position it’s time to start getting outside.

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From The Thursday Murder Club (again) to Slow Horses

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I might be making a mistake with this but it’s too late now.

It’s September and with September comes comfort. The days are getting noticeably shorter and giving us darker evenings. The weather, which hasn’t been great to begin with, is slowly getting a bit colder. Dark evenings and colder weather mean the autumn TV schedule is about to kick in. It’s time to curl up on the sofa, with a blanket and a cup of tea and see what’s on the box, or dig out a good book to lose yourself in.  Tomorrow sees the return of Slow Horses, while next week we have the double delight of Strictly Come Dancing AND a new series of books from Richard Osman – “We Solve Murders” – This means I’m going to be sitting on the BorrowBox app so I can get to listen to it sometime this year.

As a lead up to these delicious comforts, I’ve borrowed  the audiobook of The Thursday Murder Club, again.  With the casting complete and the filming (presumingly) commenced, I’m not convinced it’s a good idea to have the book so fresh in my mind.  For me I find it best to have a decent gap between book and film so that the finer details can fade a little and if they are changed in the film, I’m none the wiser, and I walk away feeling happy.

I think from here on in, I’m going to try to embody Joyce, although I’ve tried and failed previously – today is always a good day to start a fresh. There is something so good natured about her and as she says early on in TTMC she’s often overlooked, which can be worked to her advantage. I’m sure I’m overlooked but I’m not sure if I can work that to my advantage unless continuing to be overlooked counts (it does). I don’t know what it is but I just really like the tone of the character – she seems to find joy in even the most mundane of things (whilst being caught up in a murder investigation…)

Re Slow Horses, I’m going to try and leave it ’til the weekend – we’ll see if that really happens. I’m entertained by the fact that I’m delaying gratification with this for the weekend but refuse to do so with the new book coming out. I suppose that’s because with Slow Horses I can give in and treat myself, but once that audiobook hits the app, it gets booked up at such a manic pace that by the end of the first day the waiting list spans years! I fully expect to see 2030 by the end of the day. It comes away pretty quickly because you listen to it and then return it – it’s rare that you would keep it for the full 21days. So every early return whittles down the waiting times. However you still have to wait your turn, unlike Slow Horses when I can just give in and turn on the telly when I want!

Watch this and tell me, could you postpone watching??    

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Hiroshima by John Hersey

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Last night I finished reading this slight tome.  If you’d seen me reading it on the bus you would have thought I was just after receiving bad news, I couldn’t help but continually put my hand to my mouth, and in a way I was getting bad news.

If this was a piece of fiction it would be described as a great work of imagination but sadly it’s not fiction.  Yes, we are all aware of the fact that two nuclear bombs were dropped, one on Hiroshima and then Nagasaki.  However this is simply a fact, almost an abstract notion.  It happened and we know it was awful but we don’t know what it was like on the ground, to be going about your daily life at 8am, a bomb lands at 8:15 and if you survived your life was never the same again.

As I said it was a small read – 98 pages, but it did bring tears and heartbroken sympathy.  I don’t normally read this kind of writing but it was worth it and I think it should be recommended reading in every school across the world.  These bombs can’t be used ever again and the fact that it’s a threat that hangs over us on an ongoing basis to some degree or other is truly terrifying.

A big Thank You to Fionnuala for giving us this.

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June/July ’15 Finish Reads

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I’m rather pleased to say that my last three reads are actually books that I’d previously started but never finished.

The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin – I didn’t think I’d read much of this book but a bookmark still in it tells me I had actually gotten almost 100 pages into it!  However upon re-reading it I couldn’t remember anything about it at all!  On the other hand in the re-read I couldn’t understand why I didn’t finish it first time around!  I have the second book in the series on my shelf just waiting to be picked up.

My second read – previously I had only read a chapter or two of this book.  On the other hand, I’d seen the series, the film, and listened to the audiobook – so it really was time to pick up the book and read the words for myself.  Yes I’m referring to the first in the Karla Trilogy – Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré!  

The series and the film follow each other fairly closely.  The book was written in 1974 and the series was made in 1979 so period was in keeping with the book.  There was one or two small changes made – locations – that when it came to the film they too, kept the places changed – I’m not sure I understand why.  On the other hand I did enjoy the book and Alec Guinness was Smiley for me the whole way through.

Finally, I got my hands on a copy of A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr

This had come to my attention last year (or was it the year before?)  I couldn’t find it anywhere so in the end I ordered it in the library.  Unfortunately for me the mood had passed by the time I’d gotten it.  It’s a short read – 85 pages and I only got about 28 pages into it when I had to return it.  So when I saw that Penguin had just released it as a Modern Classic this summer, I knew I had to get my hands on it and try it again.  Now one habit of mine is to find out how many pages are in a book and figure out where the half way mark is.  When I did that here I spotted that the story was signed off as such, as if it were a letter.  So that was how I read it – as a letter.  I devoured it which I’m rather pleased with as I’m a slow reader.  I loved it – I loved that warm summer – slightly struggled with the phonetic accent but that wasn’t the stumbling block that it possibly was last time.

Now I think my next read will be a new purchase but I’m still not entirely sure which.