I've had a cold, so I got a lot of books read.
What I Just Finished Reading
Rosamund Heads the Chalet School by Lisa Townsend. This is a Chalet School book written by someone else. It follows the same term as Redheads, but is about the head girl, who barely appears in Redheads. I enjoyed it - it was a pretty standard Chalet School story. Although I couldn't remember Redheads and at one point something happens, but Rosamund doesn't know what and it's never explained. So I then went on to read Redheads, which I'd recently acquired from GGBP, since it's one of the few I don't own at all.
Redheads at the Chalet School by Elinor M Brent-Dyer. I enjoyed this, especially seeing the other side of events that happened in Rosamund. The only trouble is that Lisa Townsend pointed out the inconsistencies and then I could really see them. Without having them pointed out I would never have noticed. In retrospect, I should have read this one first.
Spectacles by Sue Perkins. I love an autobiography and this one was interesting with her being on Taskmaster at the moment. It was just interesting to see her life and how she got into comedy.
The Female of the Species by Lionel Shriver. I was reminded of the existence of Lionel Shriver recently when I went to a second hand book shop and some of her books were there. I have a weird relationship with her books because I don't know if I like them or not. I owned a copy of Double Fault for a while, and then struggled to get rid of it because I wanted to re-read it but couldn't. But I thought I'd try some more because they are interesting. This one was her first book and it was a bit of a struggle. I found the characters a bit odd and weirdly named. There were very long flashbacks, which didn't feel relevant at the time (but were later). I don't know if I liked it or not.
Should We Stay or Should We Go by Lionel Shriver. This is about a married couple deciding to commit suicide together when they're 80 (which happens to be March 2020). And then each chapter is a different idea of what happens with them going through with it or not. Some of them massively go off into flights of fancy. It was all right, but I have two problems with this book. One is the number of pages that went on about Brexit. Maybe that'll be interesting in 50 years time, but not yet. And also the author is American but set it in Britain. So there are a few weird things in there, like one character getting ALS and a mention of England having been a member of he EU.
The Girl on the 88 Bus by Freya Sampson. I read her first book, The Last Library, when I was on holiday and immediately put this ebook on hold from the library. Then it took ages to get to me. It's about a man looking for a girl he met once on the bus. And it's also about various characters in it following their own path, rather than the ones their parents have set out for them. Partway through this I worried that there was going to be an unlikely romance in it (like her last book, although that only happened right at the end). But then the plot took a turn, the romance took a back seat and then I really enjoyed it.
Surprise Me by Sophie Kinsella. I got into Sophie Kinsella when I picked one of her books for a reading challenge, knowing nothing about it. They're easy to read and have interesting characters (with some really interesting jobs). But I can't read too many at one time because quite a few are about romance (even though they don't sound like are they). This one isn't, strictly speaking, since the main character is married. I really enjoyed it - there was a mystery brewing which doesn't get solved until the end and I was into that.
What I'm Currently Reading
The Week (magazine). It was posted on Thursday and arrived today. So now I've finished my book, I will catch up on week-old news.
What I'm Reading Next
I Owe You One by Sophie Kinsella. The last of her books I have to read, aside from the Shopaholic series, which I've tried and I'm not into. I don't know anything about it, I didn't even bother to read the blurb. Annoyingly though, the library doesn't have it in ebook form, only in hardback. Which are needlessly big and heavy.
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