I honestly thought I’d fall apart on spelling the month out in my books for February. We needed one more letter and the month was shorter. It seemed like a recipe for disaster. It was a bit of a struggle to find something for Y and I had to break my book buying ban. Then there was the fact that I had to find last minute alternatives for R and B because I wasn’t going to finish the two I’d set aside. I found E a bit more of a struggle than I expected but, once again, Agatha Christie came through for me.

F

Fox 8 by George Saunders

Book 3 of the month.

Synopsis:

“An enchanting and darkly comic fable of human greed and nature, from the Man Booker Prize-winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo, exquisitely illustrated by Chelsea Cardinal

Fox 8 has always been curious, and a bit of a daydreamer. And, by hiding outside houses at dusk and listening to children’s bedtime stories, he has learned to speak ‘Yuman’.

The power of words and the stories built from them is intoxicating for a fox with a poetic soul, but there is ‘danjur’ on the horizon: a new shopping mall is being built, cutting off his pack’s food supply. To save himself and his fellow foxes, Fox 8 will have to set out on a harrowing quest from the wilds of nature deep into the dark heart of suburbia.

Read my review.

E

Elephants Can Remember by Agatha Christie

Book 4 of the month.

Synopsis:

Hercule Poirot is determined to solve an old husband and wife double murder that is still an open verdict…

Hercule Poirot stood on the cliff-top. Here, many years earlier, there had been a tragic accident. This was followed by the grisly discovery of two more bodies – a husband and wife – shot dead.

But who had killed whom? Was it a suicide pact? A crime of passion? Or cold-blooded murder? Poirot delves back into the past and discovers that ‘old sin leave long shadows.”

Read my review.

B

The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket

Book 9 of the month.

Synopsis:

“Are you made fainthearted by death? Does fire unnerve you? Is a villain something that might crop up in future nightmares of yours? Are you thrilled by nefarious plots? Is cold porridge upsetting to you? Vicious threats? Hooks? Uncomfortable clothing?

It is likely that your answers will reveal A Series of Unfortunate Events to be ill-suited for your personal use. A librarian, bookseller, or acquaintance should be able to suggest books more appropriate for your fragile temperament. But to the rarest of readers we say, “Proceed, but cautiously.”

Review coming soon.

R

Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers by Grant Naylor

Book 2 of the month.

Synopsis:

“After celebrating his birthday with a Monopoly-board pub crawl around London, he came to in a burger bar on one of Saturns moons, wearing a lady’s pink crimplene hat and a pair of yellow fishing waders, with no money and a passport in the name of “Emily Berkenstein”.

Joining the Space Corps seemed a good idea. Red Dwarf, a clapped out spaceship, was bound for Earth. It never made it, leaving Lister as the last remaining member of the human race, three million light years from Earth, with only a dead man, a senile computer, and a highly evolved cat for company.

They begin their journey home. On the way, they’ll break the light barrier. They’ll meet Einstein, Archimedes, God, and Norman Wisdom…and discover an alternative plane of reality.”

Read my review.

U

The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett

Book 6 of the month.

Synopsis:

What would happen if the Queen became a reader of taste and discernment rather than of Dick Francis? The answer is a perfect story.

The Uncommon Reader is none other than HM the Queen who drifts accidentally into reading when her corgis stray into a mobile library parked at Buckingham Palace. She reads widely ( JR Ackerley, Jean Genet, Ivy Compton Burnett and the classics) and intelligently. Her reading naturally changes her world view and her relationship with people like the oleaginous prime minister and his repellent advisers. She comes to question the prescribed order of the world and loses patience with much that she has to do. In short, her reading is subversive. The consequence is, of course, surprising, mildly shocking and very funny.”

Read my review.

A

All My Friends are Superheroes by Andrew Kaufman

Book 5 of the month.

Synopsis:

“All Tom’s friends really are superheroes. Tom even married a superhero, the Perfectionist. But at their wedding the Perfectionist is hypnotized by her ex, Hypno, to believe that Tom is invisible. Nothing he does can make her see him. Six months later, the Perfectionist is sure that Tom has abandoned her, so she’s moving to Vancouver. She’ll use her superpowers to leave all the heartbreak behind. With no idea that Tom’s beside her, she boards the plane. Tom has, until they touch down, to convince her he’s there, or he loses her forever.

This book is a wonderful, heartbreakingly funny tribute to love, sweet love.”

Read my review.

R

The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket

Book 10 of the month.

Synopsis:

“In The Reptile Room the siblings endure a car accident, a terrible smell, a deadly serpent, a long knife, a brass reading lamp, and the re-appearance of a person they’d hoped never to see again.

With 5 million copies sold in the UK alone, one might consider Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events to make him one of the most successful children’s authors of the past decade. We, however, consider these miserable so-called adventure stories and the Hollywood film starring Jim Carrey that accompanied the books for children as nothing more than a dreadful mistake.”

Review coming soon.

Y

Yellow by Janni Visman

Book 8 of the month.

Synopsis:

“Stella’s life is impeccably ordered, spare, and completely sealed within her London flat. Everything comes to her–her aromatherapy massage clients, her pharmaceuticals, and her lovers. When Ivan decides to stay for good, she tells him the rules: no stories from the past, no unnecessary anecdotes, no questions. Soon, however, a “Vertigo-like spiral of secrets and betrayals begin to seep through the flat like the acrid yellow odor of gas. And as the two engage in a brilliantly choreographed erotic dance, Stella’s life gradually slips through her fingers as everything she has sought to control turns against her.”

Review coming soon.