Omens

Read 19/02/2019-27/02/2019

Rating 3 stars

I like to read widely, and Omens was a definite change in pace and style from what I’ve been reading recently. It’s a book that found me through LibraryThing’s take on Secret Santa. The first year I did SantaThing, my Santa bought me two books by Kelley Armstrong. I read one of them, City of the Lost, quite promptly and enjoyed it. For some reason, I left the other waiting. I think I knew what it would be like, just from the cover.

HER PARENTS ARE KILLERS NOW SHE’S THE TARGET

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Above Sugar Hill

Read 17/02/2019-19/02/2019

Rating 4 stars

Above Sugar Hill is a collection of short stories by Linda Mannheim, set in the Washington Heights area of Upper Manhattan. I picked it up from the Influx Press stall at the Manchester Indie Book Fair at the start of the month because I have a good friend who used to live near Sugar Hill, in Hamilton Heights, and I visited her twice when she lived on St Nicholas Ave.

Towards Mellbreak

Read 13/02/2019-16/02/2019

Rating 4 stars

Towards Mellbreak is Marie-Elsa Bragg’s first novel. It’s set in a part of the Lake District that we love to visit, by Crummock Water and Buttermere.

Crummock Water November 2017

Buttermere March 2018

Scratch and Co. – The great cat expedition

Read 10/02/2019-13/02/2019

Rating 3 stars

This is a curious little book, written in 1968 and apparently satirising mountaineering literature. I’ve never read any mountaineering literature, so I can’t comment on that. I bought it on holiday in the Lake District, because I like to read books set in the places I visit.

Circe

Read 03/02/2019-10/02/2019

Rating 2.5 stars

What to make of Circe? Madeline Miller’s re-imagining of Greek mythology is a curious thing. I wanted to love it but I barely liked it.

Black Tudors: The untold story

Read 25/01/2019-03/02/2019

Rating 3 stars

Miranda Kaufmann’s re-examination of Tudor society in relation to the place black people occupied in it is described on the cover, in a quote from David Olusoga, as cutting edge as well as accessible and human.

I didn’t get off to a great start with it. It certainly had an edge to it that threatened to cut my willingness to engage with it, as well as an aspect of accessibility that grated. I considered abandoning it after the first chapter and again 60 pages from the end, when it sent me to sleep three times in as many paragraphs. I did finish it, but not soon enough.

Six Degrees of Separation: from Fight Club to I Am A Cat

 

It’s the first Saturday in February which means that it’s time for the Six Degrees meme. I’m on time, too. This month we’re starting with Fight Club by Chuck Pahlaniuk.