Angelic Paranoia

What I Just Finished Reading
The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett and The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett. These are a similar idea to the first book: there's a mystery and it's all told in an epistolary sort of format. I enjoyed these, although I think the first book was the best.

Cradle by Arthur C Clarke and Gentry Lee. By finished I mean, gave up on. I put it down to read the two books above, picked it back up and got another chapter about a character's sex life. After that I kept thinking "Do I have to read this?" and realised that I don't. So I stopped - I was about a third of the way through.

What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge. I don't know if this felt like many other books or if it was because I distantly remembered the story. It was short and it was fine.

What I'm Currently Reading
What Katy Did At School by Susan Coolidge. At the start of this it mentions Thanksgiving, and then there's a footnote explaining what that is. Which was interesting - in the age of the internet you're hard-pressed not to know what it is. It's also interesting that they start at a boarding school in April, have a four week holiday in September and four days for Christmas. That's a long time to be at school for.

What I'm Reading Next
What Katy Did Next by Susan Coolidge. May as well finish the trilogy.

What I Just Finished Reading
Killing Eve: No Tomorrow by Luke Jennings. Interestingly, this book and the TV series completely diverged. I preferred the series, I think, since it was a lot of Eve and Villanelle being like a couple and Eve assuming that Villanelle has emotions that she doesn't have because she's a psychopath.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: The High Country by John Jackson Miller. This was my pre-holiday present to myself in case the pool at the hotel was closed and I had a whole evening with not much to do. It took me a while to get into it and it was alright, but not that great in general.

Tales from the Chalet School by Helen Barber & Katherine Bruce. This is a book of Chalet School short stories set across the era. They felt very Chalet School like.

The Appeal by Janice Hallett. This is a murder mystery told in messages and emails. Although no one gets murdered until near the end of the book. I was proud of myself for guessing one secret, if not anything else!

What I'm Currently Reading
Cradle by Arthur C Clarke and Gentry Lee. Although I don't know if I'll finish it because I'm nearly halfway through the book and all that's really happened is a history of two of the male character's sex lives which have no relevance to the story, as far as I can tell. Although so far the story is 'some whales are behaving oddly' so nothing has any relevance. Although amusingly this is set in the future of 1993 where video calling is common.

Quantum Leap: Double or Nothing by J Henderson. I say currently reading, I've got as far as putting a bookmark in it. The Quantum Leap podcast have done this book and I don't remember anything about it, hence the need to re-read it.

What I'm Reading Next
The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett and The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett. I liked the first book of hers I read and the library has ebooks of the other two, so they are on hold and I just want to read them now.

What I Just Finished Reading
I had no internet for the whole weekend (and some of Monday) so I've got a lot of reading done recently.

Killing Eve: Codename Villanelle by Luke Jennings. This was interesting. There were some elements in here that are similar to the series, but some things are totally different. Which is probably a good thing in the end as having seen the series gives me no clues as to what might happen in the book, so reading the book isn't boring.

Undoctored by Adam Kay. I thought this would be some light relief, which it sort of was. It's about the time after he left medicine with flashbacks to his time at medical school. It's clear he had bad mental health at medical school and it just got worse after he left medicine. But he tells it in an amusing way, so it doesn't seem quite as awful.

The Songs of Distant Earth by Arthur C Clarke. This started with a foreward talking about how he didn't like the way Star Wars and Star Trek have faster than light travel. Which seemed like a bad start. But then it was an interesting story of colonisation.

Imperial Earth by Arthur C Clarke. This felt a lot like the previous book, except it's all set within the solar system, mainly centring on a character who lives on Titan and visits Earth. Arthur C Clarke does like to explain a lot of concepts and he has a democracy where the president is drawn by lottery from people who don't want to do it, which he also had the previous book. But he alludes to things going wrong in the late 20th century, before humanity wises up and fixes things. Except none of those things are climate change, which does therefore date the book. If he was writing now I can't imagine that he wouldn't include it.

What I'm Currently Reading
I've literally just finished that last book, so nothing!

What I'm Reading Next
Killing Eve: No Tomorrow by Luke Jennings. I am really looking forward to this because presumably it all wraps things up, but I have no idea how, since it's gone on a different track to the TV series.

What I Just Finished Reading
The Vanishing Stair and The Hand on the Wall by Maureen Johnson. It turns out that it takes three books to solve the mystery started in Truly Devious. After I finished the first one I couldn't leave it there. And I had got into it. The last two books in the series are hstand-alone and I just didn't like the main character enough to read books just about her.

And "Truly Devious" is supposed to be "Truly Devious", not "Truly, Devious". The comma is always there and never explained.

What I'm Currently Reading
Killing Eve: No Tomorrow by Luke Jennings. Finally made it to this one! I only just started it, but it's pretty much along the same lines as the first book.

What I'm Reading Next
Killing Eve: Die For Me by Luke Jennings. May as well read the third (and final) book in the trilogy after I finish the second.

What I Just Finished Reading
Killing Eve: Codename Villanelle by Luke Jennings. This is the first book in the trilogy that the TV series is based on. I thought I'd try it since it was only £2.99, but then it turns out it's really short. And much less humorous than the TV series. I enjoyed it, and ended up reading it all in a day, but I can see why the TV series needed to add a lot of stuff.

What I'm Currently Reading
Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson. This is a boarding school story set in modern day America, where the main character is obsessed with true crime stuff and wants to solve the murder/disappearance that happened when the school opened. I'm halfway through and still haven't decided whether I like it or not. But the one thing that is getting to me is that the murderer wrote a poem and signed it:
"Truly,
Devious"
So they are calling them "Truly Devious". Except that comma in the sign off, and it being a new line means to me that they are actually just calling themselves "Devious" and the Truly part is a sign off, like saying Yours sincerely, or Regards.

What I'm Reading Next
Killing Eve: No Tomorrow by Luke Jennings. The second in the Killing Eve trilogy. After I finished the first book and I bought the other two and would have gone straight on to read them, but the one I'm currently reading is a library book.

What I Just Finished Reading
The Devil Rides Out by Paul O'Grady. This starts when he's 17 and stops just as he's getting into drag. The ending felt a lot like he'd just reached his word count and stopped, so came as a bit of a surprise. It was really interesting though.

Childhood's End by Arthur C Clarke. One of the problems with this book is that although most of it is set in the mid 21st century, it feels like it's still set in the time it was written (mid-50s), in that men and women still have very defined roles in life. But even ignoring that, I really disliked this book by the end. I spent most of it not really knowing what it was about, but then the ending was presented as a great thing for the human race when it felt like it was actually really awful.

What I'm Currently Reading
Leave it to Psmith by PG Wodehouse. I have only just started this one and there's only been one scene with Psmith in it. But I am enjoying it - the characters are all mad/terrible and I can already see how it's all going to go terribly wrong.

What I'm Reading Next
I am really behind on reading books I already owned at the start of the year. So more of that. Despite me occasionally visiting Kobo and buying a few 99p books.