How are we into November already? This is the month I got real about the TBR list on the Kindle and started to get rid of stuff, I just wasn’t going to ever read. I’m at 37 now but the actual physical books list is higher, I think because they are not books I can read in a couple of days and aren’t as portable as the Kindle, I’m being commitment phobic about them! Anyway here’s what I read in October.
The Duke Who Ravished Me – Diana Quincy
I came out of the house without my book and this was on the Kindle app on the phone. It was fine. I had to open it just now to remind myself what it was about and it was fluffy with a suprisingly melodramatic plot. I could see it as a gothic novel. However, I liked that everyone got a happy ending.
Archangel’s War – Nalini Singh
I read this in one gulp. It has all of the things that annoy me about her writing, but aside from the repetition of how feisty Elena was and how Raphel would destroy everything should she be harmed etc. I enjoyed it. It seems to me that this it either the last book in the series or much like the pys/changling series, she’ll be onto a second arc. I love the world building, I wish she would show more than tell me about the feelings of the characters
The Silence of the Girls – Pat Barker
If you read one book on this list. Let it be this one. It was just plain good. I also find telling that it resonates with women but not so much with men. Briseis notes in the book that she begins to think of herself as a thing, not a person but because she is a person, she has feelings and she has to find a way to accommodate the huge rift that occurs when you lose everything and yet have to find a way to live with the people that hurt you. I want to go and read it again.
I love Jodi Taylor’s books and this is the start of a new series, a diversion from St Mary’s and about the Time Police. I really enjoyed it and it was just what I needed after Pat Barker. It’s three main characters (Team Weird) have nothing in common and don’t help one another but Taylor is brilliant at showing development, showing characters changing and becoming a team, as well as showing how easy it is to lose that bond to. And it’s hilarious and we get to go to St Mary’s and the next one is an autobuy!
I also really liked this, enough that I stayed in a bath for 2 and half hours to finish it! I enjoyed how real Bri is, it doesn’t at all stray away from how difficult it can be to be black and poor, but it’s about finding a way to survive AND be ok with yourself.
As part of my commitment to getting my kindle TBR down (this one has been sitting on it for 4 years!). I’m not sure what I’m expecting but this wasn’t it. Which isn’t to say, I didn’t enjoy it, the voice was so strong and so hopeful, although it’s not actually very hopeful. It’s about how we find ways to be human when we live with inhumanity. I liked it.
Another Kindle TBR, which I’m still not sure about. It is such a dark book, most people stop sleeping, we need to sleep society breaks down and we see it happen but the book ends in the middle, we don’t know what happens because the narrator goes to sleep.
Ok, I did enjoy these books but both books had British characters, in them, not only British but the heir and ex wife to the heir of a Baroncy, so as with other British characters, Knox has written, the language is slightly off for me. I’m pretty certain that if you are a Baroness (that wasn’t politically appointed to the House of Lords), then your granddaughter is not going to call you ‘nan’, she might call you Grandmother, Grannie or Grandma or some bizarre family version of it but not ‘Nan’. There were other instances. However, they were interesting books, although in the second, if at 19, I had behaved like that towards my mother, well the sound of the shouting as Ma ‘explained why I was being completely unreasonable’ would have been loud and gone on for a long time.
I’m doing pretty well considering and had a good, if busy, week. I got one event over with and am hurtling towards the team offsite, two days, one of work type things and another of volunteering. By the time that’s done, we (I say we, I mean my boss and the Heads of Audit) should have got the Audit Plan for next year and most of the Board and Governance meetings over with and work should be downhill all the way Ma’s birthday in early December, when I get a whole three days off, and then Christmas. Which feels ages away but isn’t really. I just bought Christmas books for the family, and now have to think about godchildren and other Christmas prep, once I’ve sorted out Oli and Ma’s birthdays!
Other things achieved this weekend, well Sue and I did good work sorting out food and tidying up for a seven year old’s birthday party, the boys in question were pretty good, the birthday boy was a tad overexcited (but he’s had quite the week!). Ma and I had a cracking day on the plot on Sunday and have started work on the new section, there is lots of work to do. I’ve also been having a low key declutter, so currently all the chests of drawers in my bedroom are very tidy!
The plan for this week is to cheer the hell up, Sarah is coming for dinner tonight and other than some time with Michael, I’m all about work until the weekend, when I’m seeing Christelle and spending a day on the plot. Actually, the biggest problem right now, is finding time tog do nothing. Right now, I have a day to sort out the flat and life admin and a day on the plot and then it’s time to go pack to work, I want some days to lie about doing nothing (actually, I want all the days to do that!).
It looks very autumnal at the moment but the kale is magnificent
I can deal with that, but the other thing that isn’t really my issue but is having an interesting effect. And while I’m going to be circumspect about the actual thing, suffice to say that some close friends are dealing with a child and a leukaemia diagnosis. It’s not at all about me at all I know this, but apparently, my brain is dredging up trauma because I’m watching my friends go through something similar to Stef dying (I’m in no way equating a seriously ill child with a dying fiancé before anyone jumps on me, just pointing out that my brain doesn’t distinguish). I’m dreaming about Stef, which hasn’t happened for a while and yesterday while having a perfectly normal conversation started crying. I don’t have PMT, so here we are. I’m having a reaction and this folks, is why I’m so keen on therapy, yep I’m having more because I need not to emote all over my friends right now but I need to sort my brain out!
