pickThe fourth in the Marlow Murder Club series, and the best of the series so far, IMO. A classic locked-room mystery where everyone has a motive, means and evidence against them.
I‘ve already placed my order for book 5, out on 15/01/2026.
#SeriesLove2025 @Andrew65 @TheSpineView
Book 8/60, Page 2,312/18,000 #Read2025 @DieAReader
#LetterM #LitsyAtoZ @Texreader
January reading:
Finished:
So Late in The Day (43 pages)
The Party (117 pages)
Gone With The Penguins (448 pages)
The Pearl (128 pages)
Killing Time (105 pages)
The Children‘s Back (158 pages)
Fundamentally (352 pages)
Currently reading:
Clytemnestra (64%, 304 pages)
Murder on the Marlow Belle (65%, 228 pages)
Bonfire of the Vanities (14%, 103 pages)
The House on Cold Hill (57%, 184 pages)
Books 7/60
Pages 2210/18000
#JumpStart2025 @Lizpixie
pickFinished this yesterday and have been trying to process my feelings about it since. It tackles some deep subjects with a levity that makes the book seem trite at times, but there are some dark themes running through the story so it needs some humour to lighten it. On the whole, I enjoyed it, and felt invested in the friendship between the two MCs, especially towards the end.
Book 7/60 #Read2025 @DieAReader
Book 7/5 #JumpStart2025 @Lizpixie
Couldn‘t decide what sort of mood I was in so I‘ve ended up reading 5 books concurrently….
pickDexter and Athena live a life of mundane but content (at least outwardly) domesticity, which is shaken when Dexter bumps into an old girlfriend whose lifestyle is more hedonistic. Garner‘s writing captures the elements of both lifestyles and the effects well, and she has some excellent turns of phrase: “She had all the colour and dynamism of a parsnip”
Book 6/60; Page 999/18000 #Read2025 @DieAReader
#JumpStart2025 @Lizpixie
I have many authors whose work I mostly enjoy, but I feel that in both his Death in Paradise novels and in his Marlow Murder Club novels, Thorogood has never let me down. Just about to dive into this, the latest in the Marlow Murder Club series
#AuthorYouLove
#25Alive
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
@Eggs
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks of my December reads, the first of a series; the next two in the series are on this year‘s TBR list.
#SnowyCover
#25Alive
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
@Eggs
My first read of the year was this thought-provoking short.
#1stBk25
#25Alive
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
@Eggs
A day late because I wasn‘t very well yesterday.
This one was by far and away my favourite book of 2024.
#FaveBk24
#25Alive
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
@Eggs
so-soThis one was for my book club. Despite Bennett being a bit of a National Treasure in the UK, and even though I enjoyed the film The Lady In the Van (mostly because of Maggie Smith), I‘ve never wanted to read him, and on the strength of this, I won‘t again. Not so much a novella as a series of random anecdotes haphazardly thrown together. Not my thing, I‘m afraid.
Book 6/60; Page 841/18000
#Read2025 @DieAReader
#JumpStart2025
pickThis novella packs quite a punch on its parable warning of the dangers of jealousy, cheating and greed that can spring up when someone finds good fortune.
Book 4/60
Page 736/18000
#Read2025 @DieAReader
#JumpStart2025 @Lizpixie
Does 10 years qualify as “lasting”. Because after 10 years together, my chap finally put a ring on it on New Year‘s Eve. We‘ll be getting married in May this year.
#LastingLove
#25Alive
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
@Eggs
pickAlthough this didn‘t have the immediate appeal of Away With The Penguins, it is a fitting finale to the trilogy of books about Veronica McCreedy and her penguins.
First book finished for #SeriesLove2025 @Andrew65 @TheSpineView
#LetterG #LitsyAtoZ @Texreader
#SomeplaceCold (Antarctic) #FictionalTraveler @julieclair
Book 3/60 Page 608/18,000 #Read2025 @DieAReader
Keeping my goal the same as the last couple of years because it‘s achievable. I don‘t want to feel I *have* to read just to hit a goal.
#ReadingGoal
#25Alive
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
@Eggs
I‘ve fallen behind on my posts!
Being an introvert, this books speaks to me.
#Joy
#25Alive
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
@Eggs
Yes, it‘s a children‘s book, but it‘s also funny, moving, and heart-warming. My favourite read of December
#12Booksof2024
@Andrew65
so-soI can accept that this is nicely written, and some people will like it very much, but I‘m afraid this coming-of-age story of two sisters, set in post-war Bristol didn‘t really move me.
Book 2/60; Page 162/18,000! #Read2025 @DieAReader
#LetterP #LitsyAtoZ @Texreader
Book 2 #JumpStart2025 @Lizpixie
Not just my favourite read of November, but the best book of the year for me. I adored it.
#12BooksOf2024
@Andrew65
My favourite read of October (in fact, my only read in October!) was this exploration of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
#12BooksOf2024
@Andrew65
I joined in the year-long #ReadAway2024 last year but fell by the wayside when work got unusually busy. Hopefully I can stick with this one for the whole year. I want to read 60 books/18,000 pages/360 hours.
So far, I‘m on I‘m on:
1 (very short book)
101 pages
105 minutes
#Read2025
@DieAReader
It was a close run thing between this and Butter for my favourite read of September, but Booker long-listed Enlightenment edged it for me. Sarah Perry back on form with this tale of friendship, unrequited love and obsession with a hint of historical mystery.
Day 9
#12BooksOf2024
@Andrew65
The first thing that came to mind for today‘s prompt was the 1978 song Toast by Streetband, whose lead singer was Paul Young (who went on to have huge success as a solo artist in the 80s).
#Toast
#25Alive
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
@Eggs
August was another disappointing month reading-wise, so while an honourable mention goes to one of my two September reads, The Cat Who Caught a Killer, for being a bit of fun, my choice for #12Booksof2024 goes to this November read, a delightful 1950s period piece.
#Day8
#12Booksin2024
@Andrew65
pickIt‘s a dull wet day here, so reading in front of the fire is the order of the day!
First published as part of a collection of three short stories under the name So Late in the Day, this little hardback contains just the title story. Keegan can pack so much into a few words, and this certainly makes one ponder about relationships, generosity, humour and misogyny.
pickSlipped in this Quick Read this afternoon, as my final read of 2024. Not read Jo Nesbo before, but on the strength of this, I will read more. This 90-page short story fooled me - I thought I‘d seen the twist coming but then bam! - Nesbo hit me with one I didn‘t see coming at all.
These Reading Agency Quick Reads, aimed at non-readers as an introduction to reading, are great for established readers to find new-to-them authors too.
I hadn‘t appreciated how many series I‘ve part-read until I started sizing up my 2025 reads….
- Marlow Murder Club
- Comoran Strike
- Before The Coffee Gets Cold
- Olga Pushkin
- DI Bliss
- Phryne Fisher
- Veronica McCreedy
- Borrow-A-Bookshop
- Vera Wong
- Sweetpea
- Rutshire
It‘s going to be a busy year!
@TheSpineView @Andrew65
Technically, this happened on 7th October (the 10-year anniversary of the day we met), but I only got the ring today
Sorry, @Andrew65 but I‘m going rogue! Long hours at work in July and August meant less time for reading, so I have few books to choose from, and none that wowed me. So while I give an honourable mention to Jenny Lund Madsen‘s Thirty Days of Darkness, read in July, I‘m using a September read as my Day 7 #12BooksOf2024. Though it was a little strange, I found Butter a compelling read.
pickI‘ve never seen the ballet, and so never really understood why the image of the nutcracker is so entwined with Christmas, but after seeing both E T A Hoffman‘s original and Alexandre Dumas‘ rewrite mentioned in a book earlier this month, I had a desire to read both versions! Not quite what I expected, and I‘m not entirely sure what Dumas was aiming for in his near-identical rewrite, but it‘s a sweet, magical story.
6.5hrs #20in4 #Readathon
My favourite read of June. This one is quite an odd book, that appears to be centred around the Highland clearances of the 18th/19th century, but also looks at relationships and loneliness. It packs a lot in to a short novel.
#12Booksof2024
@Andrew65
Combining two days in one today because, being a British woman of a certain age, the words #Naughty and #Nice, seen in close proximity, still make me think of the “Naughty but nice” fresh cream cake ad campaign of the 1970s, that featured well-known celebrities of the day (such as Cilla Black here)
#ChristmasCheer
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
@Eggs
My favourite read in May was this classic. Janie is such a wonderful character.
Day 5 - May
#12Booksof2024
@Andrew65
My favourite read of April was this absolute delight.
#12BooksOf2024
@Andrew65
My inner geek loved this history of the London Underground, my favourite read of February
#12Booksof2024
@Andrew65
The image is a painting of Jemmy Wood, a banker the city of Gloucester, UK, in the late 18th/early 19th century, believed by some to be the inspiration for the character of #Scrooge in Dickens‘ A Christmas Carol.
#ChristmasCheer
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
@Eggs
First off in my #12BooksOf2024 is this one from the creator of Death In Paradise, Robert Thorogood. I always enjoy his writing.
@Andrew65
pickYes, I know it‘s a children‘s book and I‘m 56 years old with neither children nor grandchildren as an excuse, but I‘m in full seasonal read mode and this one fit the bill. I loved it.
pickThis book isn‘t perfect - it‘s organised chronologically so some aspects of celebrations are touched on more than once - but overall I enjoyed this trip through the development of Christmas traditions that brought us to the experience many of us, in the west, recognise as “traditional”.
Yet another from my extensive collection of seasonal crime novels….
#Day22
#Snow
#ChristmasCheer
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
@Eggs
The escapades of a young magician were the first thing that came to mind for today‘s #ChristmasCheer prompt.
#Day21
#Magical
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
@Eggs
This was a cute romance that I read a couple of years ago.
Not quite a festive #wreath, but I‘ve loved Asterix since I was a child, so I‘m going with it!
#Day18
#Tree
#ChristmasCheer
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
@Eggs
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