Category Archives: 3

November 28, 2025 · 1:57 pm

Columbus Day – Craig Alanson

Columbus Day – Craig Alanson

I was looking for something to listen to on my husband’s audible account (it was in alphabetical order) and I decided to give this one a go. Science fiction is not my usual choice, but I do, occassionally read it. I didn’t realise this was book 1 though.

Here’s the blurb …

We were fighting on the wrong side, of a war we couldn’t win. And that was the good news. 

The Ruhar hit us on Columbus Day. There we were, innocently drifting along the cosmos on our little blue marble, like the native Americans in 1492. Over the horizon come ships of a technologically advanced, aggressive culture, and BAM! There go the good old days, when humans only got killed by each other. So, Columbus Day. It fits. 

When the morning sky twinkled again, this time with Kristang starships jumping in to hammer the Ruhar, we thought we were saved. The UN Expeditionary Force hitched a ride on Kristang ships to fight the Ruhar, wherever our new allies thought we could be useful. So, I went from fighting with the US Army in Nigeria, to fighting in space. It was lies, all of it. We shouldn’t even be fighting the Ruhar, they aren’t our enemy, our allies are. 

I’d better start at the beginning….

This was quite long – 17 hours, and a lot happened and a lot had to be described. There is a lot of galaxy and world building going on (all done very well). But, as for any story, it really comes down to the characters. Skippy, the beer can AI, was my favourite and I loved how Joe and Skippy played off each other. It was a very immersive experience and I can imagine it as a film or television series.

A review

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August 7, 2025 · 2:19 pm

Penelope – Anya Wylde

Penelope – Anya Wylde

I have had this on my Kindle for a very long time, and it was selected by my random number generator.

Here’s the blurb …

Leaving behind the rural charms of Finnshire, Miss Penelope Fairweather arrives in London with hope in her heart and a dream in her eye. The dowager, no less, has invited her for a season in London, where she will attempt to catch a husband.

Thus begins our heroine’s tale as she attempts to tackle the London season with all her rustic finesse. Unfortunately, her rustic finesse turns out to be as delicate as a fat bear trying to rip apart a honeycomb infested with buzzing bees.

What follows is a series of misadventures, love affairs, moonlit balls, fancy clothes, fake moustaches, highwaymen, sneering beauties, pickpockets, and the wrath of a devilishly handsome duke.

At first, I found this slow going. It felt like a first novel where the author tries to cram in all of their good ideas – did we need so many misadventures? It picked up speed in the second half, and I enjoyed the relationship between Penelope and the Duke. It was well-written, witty and fun.

A review

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July 10, 2025 · 3:33 pm

The Bostonians – Henry James

The Bostonians – Henry James

This was in my husband’s audible library (slightly odd), so I thought I would listen as I liked Portrait of a Lady.

Here’s the blurb …

The Bostonians is a novel by Henry James, first published as a serial in The Century Magazine in 1885-1886 and then as a book in 1886.

This satire of the women’s rights movement in America is the story of the ravishing inspirational speaker Verena Tarrant and the bitter struggle between two distant cousins who seek to control her. Will the privileged Boston feminist Olive Chancellor succeed in turning her beloved ward into a celebrated activist and lifetime companion? Or will Basil Ransom, a conservative southern lawyer, steal Verena’s heart and remove her from the limelight?

This was ostensibly about women’s suffrage, but I think Olive (clearly a lesbian) hated men and wanted a new world order. It came down to a competition between Olive and the handsome Basil Ransom. Poor Olive, you could see it was all going to go horribly wrong for her. She held on too tight. But I pity Verena too, I don’t think life with Basil will be what she expects it to be.

I don’t think this story works for a modern audience. People haven’t changed, but the social situation has. Now days Verena could support herself and not be dependent on Olive or Basil to keep her. She could freely choose, and maybe even have a relationship with both (not at the same time, or maybe at the same time).

The writing is beautiful and some of the incidental characters are fabulous. Mr Tarrant with his mesmeric healing, Mrs Luna and Newton (her spoiled awful son), etc.

I suspect my ignorance of the time and culture mean that I haven’t appreciated this novel as much as I should.

A review

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May 25, 2025 · 12:33 pm

Lemon – Kwon Yeo-Sun

Lemon – Kwon Yeo-Sun

I won this book, and then it languished in the pile.

Here’s the blurb …

In the summer of 2002, when Korea is abuzz over hosting the FIFA World Cup, nineteen-year-old Kim Hae-on is killed in what becomes known as the High School Beauty Murder. Two suspects quickly emerge: rich kid Shin Jeongjun, whose car Hae-on was last seen in, and delivery boy Han Manu, who witnesses Hae-on in the passenger seat of Jeongjun’s car just a few hours before her death. But when Jeongjun’s alibi turns out to be solid, and no evidence can be pinned on Manu, the case goes cold.

Seventeen years pass without any resolution for those who knew and loved Hae-on, and the grief and uncertainty take a cruel toll on her younger sister, Da-on, in particular. Unable to move on with her life, Da-on tries in her own twisted way to recover some of what she’s lost, ultimately setting out to find the truth of what happened.

Told at different points in time from the perspectives of Da-on and two of Hae-on’s classmates, Lemon loosely follows the structure of a detective novel. But finding the perpetrator is not the main objective here. Instead, the work explores grief and trauma, raising important questions about guilt, retribution, and the meaning of death and life.

I don’t think I have read anything else like this. There are three narrators, but it can take a while to work out who is doing the narrating. For one of the narrators we have a one-sided conversation with a therapist or psychiatrist, and we can read between the lines. There are hints about who the murderer might be, and there might be another crime (well there is definitely another crime, but we might know who did it). However, mostly I would say it is about grief and trauma, and how to move on from terrible events. Two of the narrators Da-On and Yun Tareim are self-absorbed, selfish and obsessive about the murder.

A review.

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May 15, 2025 · 10:42 am

Practice Makes Perfect – Sarah Adams

Practice Makes Perfect – Sarah Adams

I have been on a holiday, so I wanted some fun, light and easy reads.

Here’s the blurb …

Annie Walker is on a quest to find her perfect match—someone who complements her happy, quiet life running the local flower shop in Rome, Kentucky. But finding her dream man may be harder than Annie imagined. Everyone knows everyone in her hometown, and the dating prospects are getting fewer by the day. After she overhears her latest date say she is “so unbelievably boring,” Annie starts to think the problem might be her. Is it too late to become flirtatious and fun like the leading ladies in her favorite romance movies? Maybe she only needs a little practice . . . and Annie has the perfect person in mind to be her tutor: Will Griffin.

Will—the sexy, tattooed, and absolutely gorgeous bodyguard—is temporarily back in Rome, providing security for Amelia Rose as excitement builds for her upcoming marriage to Noah Walker, Annie’s brother. He has one personal objective while on the job: stay away from Annie Walker and any other possible attachments to this sleepy town. But no sooner than he gets settled, Will finds himself tasked with helping Annie find the love of her life by becoming the next leading lady of Rome, Kentucky. Will wants no part in changing the sweet and lovely Annie. He knows for a fact that some stuffy, straitlaced guy won’t make her happy, but he doesn’t have the heart to say no.

Amid steamy practice dates and strictly “educational” tutoring lessons, Annie discovers there are more layers to Will’s usual stoic attitude. As the lines of their friendship become dangerously blurred, Annie reconsiders her dream guy. Maybe her love life doesn’t need to be perfect—it just needs to be real.

I haven’t read the first in this series – When in Rome, but it’s not necessary. This was fun, I enjoyed the banter between Will and Annie, and the set-up (Will being Annie’s dating coach). I did find it a bit long, and the reasons for keeping them apart a bit flimsy.

Having said that, it is just a mismatch between me and this novel. People must love it, it has four stars on goodreads.

A review (they feel like I do)

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April 20, 2025 · 6:01 pm

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain

My book club is reading James by Percival Everett. I have already read it (as part of my Booker short list reading), so I thought I would listen to Huckleberry Finn and see how they were connected.

Here is the Wikipedia summary

Commentators readily distinguish three parts in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In the first, the author believes he is writing a children’s entertainment, a sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Then, at the beginning of Chapter XVI, he experiences difficulties and stops writing. It is at this point that his hero questions the notions of good and evil that he has been taught. It will take Twain seven years before he regains his creative momentum. Finally, in a third part— a highly controversial “burlesque about-face  —the character of Tom Sawyer reappears, selfish, cruel, and unconscious. Huck falls under his influence again, and the author returns to the “Tom Sawyer” spirit of the beginning.

This is not my favourite book – I know it is an American classic, but it wore me down. The constant use of the N word, and the bit at the end when they play at rescuing Jim was excruciatingly awful. The sections where it was Huck and Jim having adventures were enjoyable and interesting.

I know it is meant to be a satire and we see characters that are more like caricatures, and Huck grapples with the morality, first of helping a slave escape and then secondly of slavery itself. But I feel it has not aged well, and James does a much better job of show casing the awfulness of slavery and the selfishness (and ignorance) of the people white people.

From the Guardian

I definitely don’t agree.

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April 1, 2025 · 8:39 am

From London With Love- Katie Fforde

From London With Love – Katie Fforde

I have been a Katie Fforde fan for a long time – some are better than others.

Here’s the blurb …

It’s 1968 and it’s cold when Felicity arrives in London to stay with her mother, improve her English, do a secretarial course – and meet a suitable man.

She is already missing her home in Provence and her father and his new wife and their extended family. But it’s only for a year she tells herself – and then she can go back to France and do what she really wants and become a painter.

And then she bumps into Oliver who is quite the most interesting young man she has ever met. He lives on a barge for one thing and has a selection of jobs including looking for hidden treasures along the shores of the river Thames.

In a word he’s a mudlarker – and before long Felicity is mudlarking too. She is also pursuing her dreams and painting scenery for Oliver’s actor friends.

But is Oliver a Suitable Man of whom her mother will approve? Felicity knows she will not …

Love, tangled relationships, and a real life adventure lie at the heart of Katie’s Fforde’s heart-warming new novel.

This is not one of my favourites. I liked the two heroines, but I found the situations contrived, particularly the bit about Violet having to help Henry so that he could get a position at Oxford. And Felicity and Oliver’s falling out over the mudlarking incident seemed unrealistic.

Having said that, its cosy, warm and a bit retro, all things I like.

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February 4, 2025 · 5:29 pm

A Short History of Nearly Everything – Bill Bryson

A Short History of Nearly Everything – Bill Bryson

I was looking for something to listen to in my husband’s audible library and came across this. I missed the bit about it being a rough guide to science. Which is not a problem – I have a science degree, so I still found it fascinating.

Here’s the blurb …

Bill Bryson describes himself as a reluctant traveller, but even when he stays safely at home he can’t contain his curiosity about the world around him. “A Short History of Nearly Everything” is his quest to understand everything that has happened from the Big Bang to the rise of civilisation – how we got from there, being nothing at all, to here, being us. The ultimate eye-opening journey through time and space, revealing the world in a way most of us have never seen it before.

This is very entertaining and informative – I enjoyed Bryson’s writing style. And I feel more informed on geology, chemistry, biology, anthropology, etc. Although, it seems the more we know the less we understand. I found the narrator to be annoying (and his Australian accent was terrible) not to mention the way her pronounces Himalayas.

It is probably a little bit dated after Covid and the current state of climate change.

A review.

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February 2, 2025 · 4:06 pm

My Inconvenient Duke – Loretta Chase

My Inconvenient Duke – Loretta Chase

I was very keen to read this novel (I pre-ordered it) I enjoyed the first two books in the series (A Duke in Shining Armour and Ten Things I Hate about the Duke). In these books Alice and Blackwood are estranged (or appear to be so) and I wanted to know their story.

Here’s the blurb …

Of all the dukes in all the world, why does it have to be him?

Lady Alice Ancaster needs a husband, and fast, because her reckless brother is going to get himself killed, leaving the dukedom—and her future—in their repellent cousin’s clutches.

The Duke of Blackwood has known Alice since childhood, and they’ve always had a special connection. But years ago he broke it, when he chose a riotous life with his two best friends instead of a reasonable one with her.

The trouble is, the tall, dark, sardonic rogue keeps turning up exactly when needed, and ready—though he sometimes needs a push—to play the hero, if only for as long as it takes.

Being irresistibly drawn to the Wrong Man is not convenient, but when events come to a crisis, Alice has to make a choice. The question is, can she live with it?

This is not the novel I was expecting (which is not a bad thing). The first two thirds are before the first two novels and it shows the start of their relationship and their marriage. The last third shows that they were never really estranged they were both just busy with other duties that took them away from each other.

It’s witty, well-written, and well-researched. If you’re not familiar with the first two novels, then I think you will enjoy this one, but I was hoping for a book about a relationship that had gone sour being re-ignited.

A review.

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January 12, 2025 · 5:11 pm

Love Letters – Katie Fforde

Love Letters – Katie Fforde

I always like Katie Fforde’s novels. I found this one at the library.

Here’s the blurb …

With the bookshop where she works about to close, hopeless romantic Laura Horsley, in a moment of uncharacteristic recklessness, finds herself agreeing to help organize a literary festival deep in the heart of the English countryside. But her initial excitement is rapidly followed by a mounting sense of panic when reality sinks in and she realizes just how much work is involved – especially when an innocent mistake leads the festival committee to mistakenly believe that Laura is a personal friend of the author at the top of their wish-list. Laura might have been secretly infatuated with the infamous Dermot Flynn ever since she studied him at university, but travelling to Ireland to persuade the notorious recluse to come out of hiding is another matter.

Determined to rise to the challenge she sets off to meet her literary hero. But all too soon she’s confronted with more than she bargained for – Dermot. The man is maddening, temperamental and up to his ears in a nasty case of writer’s block. But he’s also infuriatingly attractive – and, apparently, out to add Laura to his list of conquests .

This was good – it had witty dialogue, lovely characters, and who doesn’t like a book about books? The reason why the hero and heroine couldn’t be together was a bit light – an evil other woman.

A review.

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