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April 2017 Reading Round-Up

Being busy has affected reading time, as busy tends to, but it’s been good. And I’m still knee-deep in classics and loving it.

All books are works of fiction.

The Books

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Emma Henderson: The Valentine House – Mathilde has worked at the holiday home of the Valentine family most of her life and has kept a secret for much of that time; George travels to the house having lost his parents and looking for an escape. Okay, but lacking in story.

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Helen Irene Young: The May Queen – In her younger years, May’s sister abandoned the family, having fallen pregnant, now, as war comes to Britain, May leaves home for the Wrens in London. Good factual history, just needed more detailing.

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Jennifer Donnelly: Revolution – Whilst in Paris working on her high school thesis, Andi discovers the diary of a young woman near the heart of the French Revolution. Lots of anachronisms, but the latter section is fun.

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Phillip Lewis: The Barrowfields – Henry looks back on his childhood, his father who tried so hard to be a writer, his distant relationships with mother and sister, and his own attempts to be someone. Utterly fantastic.

The Lewis was the stand out this month; it’ll very likely make my best of list, it’s just incredible. The Donnelly I’d been wanting to read it for a relatively long time, having heard much about it and having enjoyed Donnelly’s A Gathering Light (A Northern Light in the USA) in my younger years; it wasn’t nearly as good as I thought it would be. As for ongoing reads, I’ve Joanna Hickson’s The Agincourt Bride on the go; she was to be our next author in Southampton and whilst that event has been cancelled I’ll be finishing and reviewing the book. I’ve made a rough start on Charlotte Turner Smith’s Emmeline, which I’ll be prioritising soon, and I’m quite a way through Dark Aemilia.

Quotation Report

None this time.

A screenshot from The Sims 3 of a disco

A bit of a diversion from round ups, but this post is post number 1000. Getting on for 4.5 years since the post I wrote to celebrate 500 posts. (I used the same picture then – I still remember it taking a long time to set everything up; please don’t mind me re-using it here!) I should have hit 1000 last week but as I had to take a short blogging break the date got moved back. Here are the (all important?) stats:

Reviews: 391
Discussion posts: 212
Non-review posts on an individual book: 46
Comments: ~4500 (that aren’t my own replies)
Most viewed post: What Happened To Faina At The End Of The Snow Child?
Most reviewed author: Elizabeth Chadwick and Shannon Stacey (9 books each)
Earliest book reviewed: Utopia (1516)

I’m looking forward to more classics and some award shortlists – apart from the Turner Smith I have Christina Stead’s Letty Fox: Her Luck (1946) on my list. On the shortlist front, Joanna Cannon’s The Trouble With Goats And Sheep, Emma Cline’s The Girls, and Kit de Waal’s My Name Is Leon are three of the contenders for best début for The Bookseller’s British Book Awards – and I’ll be reviewing them over the next couple of weeks.

What have you been reading recently?

 
 

Freda

May 1, 2017, 2:28 pm

Congrats on your 1000th post! Revolution looks good! Happy May!

Kelly

May 1, 2017, 4:03 pm

Party!

Congratulations on post 1000!

jessicabookworm

May 2, 2017, 9:17 pm

Looks like you’ve managed a good amount of reading, considering you have been so busy. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on The Agincourt Bride by Joanna Hickson.
In April I found myself in a real non-fiction mood, reading four non-fiction books and only two fiction! My favourite out of these was Seven Stages by Geoffrey Trease, a history of famous theatrical figures.
Happy reading in May :-)

Charlie

May 10, 2017, 9:59 am

Freda: Thank you! Revolution is okay, but A Gathering Light was much better.

Kelly: Thank you!

Jessica: I’m aiming to finish the Hickson soon :) A non-fiction mood is very productive, love those! Interesting idea for a book.

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