I liked history. It was one of my favourite subjects at school even if it wasn’t my best. History is pretty big so my understanding of it is fairly limited. Especially when it comes to Irish history. This is just my way of saying that I don’t know whether Martin McDonagh’s film is actually a good metaphor for the Irish Civil War or not. It certainly seemed like a fun way of explaining it and was definitely interesting.
Normally, Agatha Christie is my most-read author almost every year but it’s been a while since I picked up one of her books. So, it’s possible that Anne Tyler could take the title this year. I’ve been reading a few of her novels recently and would be very happy to read more over December. Unfortunately, I think I’ve exhausted my library’s supply of them. Or nearly. There’s still A Spool of Blue Thread but that feels to epic an undertaking for this late in the year. Maybe it’s a 2023 kind of book? I’ve been contemplating spending most of next year tackling some of the longer books that I’ve been putting off, so that would work. Of course, as most of my reads have tended to be around 250 pages then longer doesn’t really mean long. I need to get back into the habit of reading books of over 300 pages because I’m so bad at it. At least I have audiobooks to help me, which is how I listened to my latest Anne Tyler novel.
Earlier this year, I was given the opportunity to read a copy of this book before it was published. Not only was I really honoured to get the chance to do it but I was excited to read it. The premise just sounded so good. I’d also read Dominic J. Anton’s poetry collection Intuition before, so I was excited to read his prose. The book was released in October and I was lucky enough to be sent a copy of the finished work. I couldn’t wait to get back in and read the final edition. So, I started reading it as soon as possible.
When is it possible to say for sure that an author is one of your favourites? How many of their books do you need to have read before you can make that claim? Even after reading His Bloody Project, I was sure that Graeme Macrae Burnet would be in a position to earn that title. Then I read Case Study and it only confirmed how much I enjoy his writing. In order to get the full experience, I also bought copies of his other works but, as usual, it took me a while to get around to them. When I found the audiobook version of this book in my library’s catalogue, it seemed like it was the right time to do so. So, I listened to it during work with the hope that I could finally bestow the all-important title on the Scottish author.
After I finished Redhead by the Side of the Road the other week, I listened to a second Anne Tyler book. How did I pick it? It was available as an audiobook on my library app and it was shorter than A Spool of Blue Thread. I think that’s a pretty good way to pick a book. I’ll get around to A Spool of Blue Thread eventually but it’s just too long to finish in one workday. If I have to stretch a book over a few days then I lose the momentum. It’s much easier all around if I just finish one over the course of a day.
After I read French Braid earlier this year, I decided that I’d try and read more Anne Tyler books. She’s an author that I haven’t read enough of and it’s time to change that. So, when I discovered a few of her books on my library app, I decided to borrow them. Again, I’ve been listening to audiobooks at work and she’s a great writer for that. Her stories are detailed but don’t require a lot of effort to keep track of the plot. You just get to enjoy gorgeous writing as you perform menial tasks. What could be better?
I’ve been so tired this week that I haven’t finished my current ready yet. Luckily I already had a book ready to review, so I didn’t have to rush to finish something. Hourglass was my final read of last month and one that I’d had my eye on for a while. I’ve not read any of Keiran Goddard’s poetry but I do love a verse novel. Plus, it looked absolutely gorgeous and was going to be a super quick read. Basically, my perfect book.
I’ve had this book on my shelf for ages. I was so excited to get it because it sounded like such a fantastic story and it looked beautiful. I was hoping to read it last year but I didn’t get a chance. That’s what happens when you set yourself a stupid reading challenge that restricts your choices. I’ve been making slow progress with my current read, so I decided to spend some time yesterday getting through this one. I hoped it would be a change from the heartbreaking Dear Edward. Well, it didn’t quite turn out like that.
I often wonder if this whole reviewing thing isn’t a little bit futile. Not the reading books or talking about them bit. I think that’s a great part of life and something that everyone should be encouraged to do more. No, I mean arbitrarily assigning a rating to everything that I read. I never used to do it but jumped on the bandwagon a few years ago. Ratings don’t really tell you very much because they’re so personal. Everyone has an individual spectrum of greatness and it’s all very dependent on context. Take Burncoat for example. I’ve seen plenty of people say they prefer it to The Fell but I’m the opposite. The difference? They read Sarah Hall first and I didn’t. If I’d read them in a different order would I have flipped? It’s both impossible to say and pointless to speculate. On with the review.
The second book that I read on my holiday was another of my September pre-orders and one of the most anticipated novels of this year. I’ve only ever read Normal People but I really loved it. It was an absolute 5 star read, so I was looking forward to seeing what she came up with next. I always intended to read Conversations With Friends before I read Sally Rooney’s third book but just never got round to it. Still, I thought this sounded really interesting and I think Rooney is one of the most interesting and exciting writers around. Although, I’ve read a few Millennial writers, so it was always possible that my opinion of her had changed slightly.
Yipee ki-yay, motherbooker 