Reviews

‘Footfall is as engaging as it gets. Cassandra James is . . . a terrific character, beautifully honed from seemingly staid academic to feisty heroine . . . a truly breathtaking read.’

- TANGLED WEB

Summer Reading

tatianaCoverLgThe school holidays have started. I don’t expect to do much writing, but I plan to do plenty of reading. First on the list is my book group’s big read, Middlemarch, and I am so much looking forward to it. It’s a long time since I have reread it from cover to cover, and I’ll be reporting on that.

Then there are the crime novels that I’ll be tackling either at home or abroad. I am a big fan of Martin Cruz Smith, so I’ll be packing his new novel, Tatiana. I recently reviewed The Hunting Dogs by Jorn Lier Horst, which I loved, so I’ll follow that up with Closed for the Winter, the only one in English that I haven’t yet read. I plan to try Johan’s Theorin’s The Quarry. He comes recommended by Barry Forshaw in his guide, Nordic Noir, and the novel’s set on the Swedish island of Oland, which I’ve visited on the Swedish trip I recently wrote about here: http://somethingisgoingtohappen.net/ and http://bit.ly/1jRNrnk

We’ll be in northern France part of the time, so I’ll be brushing up my French with Simenon’s Maigret et l’inspecteur Malgracieux and maybe Alphonse Daudet’s Lettres de mon moulin. Adrian Magson’s series featuring Inspector Lucas Rocco are set in 1960s Picardy and I’ve downloaded the latest, Death at the Clos du Lac.

I’ll be blogging, but maybe not quite as regularly as usual. We’ll see.

Meanwhile, I’ve been rash enough to agree to list my five favourite Agatha Christie’s after being challenged by Moira at ClothesinBooks. She’s doing the same and we’ll both be posting our lists on Thursday.

2 Comments

  1. moira @ Clothes in Books
    July 21, 2014

    Looking forward to comparing our lists on Thursday! I keep changing my mind about exactly which five will feature….

    A great varied collection of reading there – nice to think of having time to read. I have set myself a challenge to bring down the towering piles of physical books in my house to manageable proportions by the end of August, even if it involves some skim-reading, or (horrors!) starting but not finishing books – something I have done very rarely in the past, but am now coming round to. What’s your take on that? – I’m always interested in other serious readers’ views on the start/finish issue.

    Reply
    • Christine Poulson
      July 22, 2014

      Thanks, Moira, great to get this. I am having problems selecting, too. Maybe we should have gone for ten.
      The start/finish issue: I used to feel duty bound to finish a book once I had started. But no more. It depends on the book. I do usually finish the book for my book group and I pushed on past the difficult first 50 pages with Life and Fate because I felt the investment would be worth it – and it was. But I am less forgiving with crime novels. If it’s badly written – and that can include some very well-known writers – or lacks credibility I now feel no compunction in not going on.

      Reply

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