by Adam Kay. Lent by a friend.
Review: Subtitled Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor, you know this is not going to be an easy read, even if the title wasn’t a huge clue. It is actually a really funny book if you enjoy black humour and I really liked it. It is also heartbreaking.
Book 40 – The Little Shop of Happy Ever After by Jenny Colgan – was earmarked for me weeks ago, when my boss said she had found the perfect book to end my challenge. One of the best things about this is how seriously everyone else has taken it, given I essentially made up the rules as I’ve gone along.
This is a book about books – absolutely the right thing to finish on. And a good example – by myself I would not have picked this up in a shop – the frankly dreadful title – and even that much pink is usually too much for me! But, as is pointed out in the book, you should judge by appearances (books and covers….). Continue reading Book 40: The Little Shop of Happy Ever After
This book – Quarter Past Two on a Wednesday Afternoon by Linda Newbery -was recommended by my lovely boss, who is also very enthusiastic about reading. My main trouble reading it was that it came in hardback, which is harder to tote about. Once I got started though it was a great read – it’s about family, and loss, and friendship, and life. Continue reading Book 38: Quarter Past Two on a Wednesday Afternoon
This was lent to me by a friend when I started panicking that I didn’t have time to read all the books I needed to before the end of the year/challenge. Novellas are the answer! Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote.
This contains two of my favourite things – tea shops and cake – and so was already a good pick from that point of view. The Seafront Tearooms by Vanessa Greene is about more than that though as it follows several characters creating new friendships and rebuilding old relationships. Continue reading Book 35: The Seafront Tearooms
I picked up the second one first because of the title – Last Tango in Aberystwyth – which reminded me of a recent game I had been playing with a friend which became known as the Last Time I was in Aberystwyth. She won. And, also, who doesn’t like saying the name Aberystwyth? So I had to get the first book in the series – Aberystwyth Mon Amour – or it wouldn’t make any sense, obviously. They are both by Malcolm Pryce. Luckily the excellent Oxfam bookshop had both. Hurrah!
Continue reading Book 28a & 28b: Aberystwyth Mon Amour & Last Tango in Aberystwyth
I got this book – Take Six Girls: The Lives of the Mitford Sisters by Laura Thompson – in a beautiful bookshop in Bath on the way to the train station. My friend had suggested a book on the Mitford sisters and so I got this one. Having compared notes, I don’t think this is the one she meant, but it was still interesting.
This book – No, Nancy, No! by Alice Tait – is cheating a little as it’s a picture book! But it was offered by my hosts in Bath as they had recently had a book launch for it.
Death Comes to Pemberley by PD James is the closest I could get to an Austen novel for my trip to Bath. I have read all her books decades ago. I wasn’t certain about a sequel, but I thought I’d give it ago, in the interests of this experiment. I was going to see a friend for her own 40th celebrations.
I started reading Wild Irish Women by Marian Broderick when I wasn’t feeling well as it’s in handy chunks of biography. I bought it while on my second birthday holiday to Northern Ireland. I thought it looked like a fantastic souvenir, nearly as good as the whiskey mementoes I had snaffled the previous day.
forty books 