Recent reads: August 2024

I don’t think I’ve been reading quite as much as usual, but recently have finished more books and enjoyed reading as the weather remains hot. I started using Storygraph to track my reading and I’m still not sure how I feel about it, it’s the first time I’ve used something like this, so I’m still figuring it out. I like the idea of the data about my reading on the one hand, but I have very little desire to any type of social thing to go with it, so we’ll see what happens. But never fear, these rounds ups aren’t going anywhere, as I do want to keep my thoughts on this site.

Menewood

This is the second book about Hild and it’s long and fascinating and I had a hard time putting it down. Hild deftly plays the politics of the kings of her time now that she is lady of Elmet. She sees war coming and while it’s a difficult story to read for the first several hundred pages, I will say that it’s also amazing. Hild sees how egos and the personalities of the people leading and fighting the war play into their decisions and she does her best to protect her people during it all.

With a Mind to Kill

A bit of candy to follow the difficult book above. Anthony Horowitz has written three books in the style of Ian Fleming, new books in the Bond series Fleming wrote. A good story that comes at the end of Bond’s career and it was a good palette cleanser after Menewood. Horowitz has written or worked on a lot of British mystery shows that I love, so it’s not surprising I liked this book.

The Fraud

I recently listened to an interview with Zadie Smith and was so excited to see this book sitting on the shelf at my local library branch. Smith takes the life of a writer who’s been forgotten, William Ainsworth, and intertwines that with the real story of the Tichborne Claimant from Victorian England and it’s quite good. Eliza Touchet, Ainsworth’s cousin, gets caught up in the trial and the story takes the reader from Jamaica to Australia to Victorian England. I really recommend it, although to be frank, some of the ways in which people talked about the Tichborne Claimant and whether he’s really a Tichborne or not hit very close to home with how many things are spoken about today.

When young she had never understood why old women dithered so. Why they led conversations down dead ends and almost always overstayed their welcome. She did not know then what it was to have no definition in the world, no role and no reason. To be no longer even decorative. All too easy to lose your footing, to misunderstand everything, get the wrong end of every stick. (p 396)

So Late in the Day: Stories of Men and Women

I’ve loved the two novels of Claire Keegan I’ve read and couldn’t wait to read this slim book of short stories. The three stories each delve into the relationships between men and women and how personality traits of either can ruin and damage them. As is typical for Keegan, words are used sparingly and the stories are short, but pack an amazing punch. I love reading her work for that reason.

The Sentence

Tookie, a bookstore employee and avid reader, goes through a year in which she tries to rid the bookstore of the ghost of her most annoying customer. That year coincides with covid lockdowns, grief surrounding a racial reckoning, and through it all Tookie shows us a different side of Minneapolis. This isn’t always an easy read, but I loved it as I love books that feature books prominently. I’m not sure I was completely ready to read a book that takes place during 2020, but I’m glad I did.

A Sunlit Weapon

The second to last book in the Maisie Dobbs series was yet another new twist on how Dobbs and her kin are not only dealing with the war but also all the things that continue to happen away from the fighting. This mystery highlights the female ferry pilots that worked to get planes where they needed to be after maintenance and other issues had them at the wrong air base, a piece of WWII history that was new to me. I didn’t love this one as much as previous books, the main story line felt like a bit of a stretch to include the Americans in some way, but it was definitely good TV reading.

When Friendship Followed Me Home

A young adult book about a dog following a kid home and from there helping him to find his tribe? Yes please. Ben is bullied at school, has only one friend, but one day a small white dog follows him home and they are instant best friends. Through the dog he meets the Rainbow Girl and it changes his life entirely. This book was a bit corny at times, but I think I needed corny.