Angelic Paranoia

What I Just Finished Reading
A Girl Called Justice by Elly Griffiths. This is the first book in a series about a girl at boarding school in the 1930s who solves murder mysteries. It was alright, but the school was so awful that I have no desire to read any more books about that school.

Calling the Shots by Sue Barker. This was really interesting because I knew nothing about her beyond winning Roland Garros once. She talks about all the sports she was presenting for at one point and it explained why I thought she presented everything when I was a child: those were all the sports I watched!

A 1930s Childhood by Colin G Maggs. This was a short book. It was interesting, but quite a bit of it was repeated, which made sense because some of it came under multiple chapters. But I don't know that it needed to be repeated.

What I'm Currently Reading
Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman. I went to my collection of books to read, pulled this one out and then discovered it had a bookmark in it. It's a collection of short stories, so it doesn't matter where I got to. But it would be good to finish it.

What I'm Reading Next
A Stroke of the Pen by Terry Pratchett. Because I checked my Kobo wishlist and found this one was £1.99. Much as I'm excited to read it, I had just started the book above and really ought to finish it first.

What I Just Finished Reading
Star Trek: Picard: The Dark Veil by James Swallow.
I bought this because it was 99p and because it was Riker and Troi. I started it and struggled, then decided I was going to finish or give up0 on all the books I was reading on my Kobo and this was one of them. I did finished it, but it was still ultimately set before the first series of Picard and therefore all about Romulans and synthetics. I couldn't find a way to care about them in this book any more than I had in the series.

How to Argue with a Racist by Adam Rutherford.
I went to add this one to my spreadsheet and couldn't find the 'acquired' entry in order to add it to the 'read' entry. Turns out it's because I bought it in 2021 and my spreadsheet starts in 2022. I had started it, but got bored and stopped. This time round I found it interesting, talking about race and genetics and how we can't infer anything at all really.

What I'm Currently Reading
The Innocents by Francesca Segal.
I just started it today and have so far only read one chapter. I had it on my Kobo wishlist and then it was reduced to 99p, so I bought it. I have no idea why I added it because it seems to be a bit romance-y.

What I'm Reading Next
I did put a hold on a library ebook. So that, if it comes in. Or it would be good to read one of the physical books I have taking up space. I have now read all of my currently reading books on my Kobo, so I have plenty of other choices. But I looked at them the other day and didn't fancy any of them. The trouble is I have nothing to read...

What I Just Finished Reading
Murder at Bletchley Park by Christina Koning. I saw this title on the library ebook site and thought ooh, I went to Bletchley Park last year and I like murder mysteries. And then it was hardly set at Bletchley Park and a lot more about the Blitz instead. There was a lot of stuff going on about the detective's life and sometimes some bits of the mystery would come up. It turns out this was the 8th in the series, so maybe if I'd read more I'd be more interested in his life. But I wasn't. And when he announced the murderer was obvious I couldn't remember who the person was. So I think I'll give the rest in the series a miss.

What I'm Currently Reading
We Play Ourselves by Jen Silverman. I did a bit of putting (ebook) library holds on anything that sounded interesting and then had to wait a few weeks for them. And consequently have no idea what they're about or why I put a hold on them. I'm halfway through this, have no idea why I put a hold on it, but I am enjoying it. It's about a woman from New York who is a playwright, gets her big break and then it all goes wrong and she runs away to LA.

What I'm Reading Next
Kiss Her Once for Me by Alison Cochrun. No idea what this is about or why I put a hold on it, but it looks like it's coming up soon, so it'll probably be the book I'm reading next.

So far I've read three books that I acquired last year and have acquired nine books this year that I haven't yet read. But in my defence, I did go to a second-hand bookshop, and looked at Kobo's 99p/£1.99 books on sale. I know I could theoretically do neither of those things, but I just don't think it's possible to go a whole year without buying books, even though I have enough to read between books I already have but haven't read, and the library.

This year my goal was to read 12 books that were bought in a previous year. I smashed that and read 15! Of the books I acquired there were 15 that I didn't read. Which means that my to read pile has not gone down. Or up. (It's not a literal pile since some of them are ebooks.)

So my goal for 2024 is once again to read 12 books that I acquired before 2024. And that my to read pile should not have gone up by the end of the year. Which given that I did that this year should be possible next year.

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.