#FirstLineFridays

This paragraph pulled me in and hooked me

I read “The Restless Dolly Maunder” last year when it was on The Women‘s Prize for Fiction Longlist and I loved that book. Ever since I wanted to read more by Granville. I thought this sounded interesting, but it was not for me.

I‘m not sure if it‘s the wrong time, the translation or that‘s it due back at the library, but I read 20p maybe andI wasn‘t gripped.

I‘ll see if I try anything else by her in the future

I first read my dad‘s copy of this diary in the mid 90s when I was in my teens. Not long after, the uncensored version was published containing according to the introduction 25% more of her diary. Her dad removed a lot of the things Anne wrote about her mother. Anne started her dairy when she turned 13 and had just turned 15 when it ended, a lot of the stuff about her mum shows a teenage girl growing up; no one understands me, no one loves me.

Yet it was thrilling to see a man hurtling through space on one high wheel, with another tiny wheel wobbling helplessly behind. You wondered how they managed to keep their balance. No wonder they wore an anxious air. ‘Bicyclist‘s face‘, the expression was called, and the newspapers foretold a hunchbacked and tortured-faced future generation as a result of the pastime.

(This would have been something to see, and in my google search for a picture

Two children are left by themselves in a house with no furniture and enough hermetic for some days. Their mum‘s boyfriend promises to return. As the days go by he only doesn‘t return, but as readers we realize that the world Smith has created is a little different from ours, and her world scars me. I hope we never end up living in that world.

I can‘t wait to read the second book in this duology when it‘s published in May

#DoubleSpin January

#WeeklyForwcast

Continue with my yearlong reads on the right

Continue with my monthlong reads; Hard Times #WhatTheDickes, Sense and Sensibility #PembetLittens #JaneAustenThenAndNow and Lark Rise to Candleford #Hashtagbrigade

Continue with The Haunted Bridge #NancyDrewBR, read The Secret River and hopefully towards the weekend get a start on There Are Rivers in the Sky

I also want to continue listening to The Christmas Bookshop

One Brontë was definitely not a fan of Austen

#BookReport

I continued with my yearlong reads standing on the right

I continued with the monthlong reads; Lark Rise to Candleford #HashtagBrigade, Sense and Sensibility #PemberLittens #JaneAustenThenAndNow and Hard Times #WhatTheDickens

I finished Gliff, read Wild Houses and started The Haunted Bridge

I‘m still listening to The Christmas Bookshop

I‘m also reading Anne Frank‘s Diary #Netherlands #foodandlit

Late one evening Dev opens his door to find out that the Ferdias‘ brothers has kidnapped a young boy. They wish to stay at Dev‘s because of his remote location. The young boy‘s older brother owns the brothers money and they want them back.

We follow Dev, the young brother Doll and his girlfriend and mother, and his brother Cillian, and learn how they handle it and are willing to do.

A couple of the first writings in this collection covers Collette and Lee Miller, and I knew I was going to love this one. She also covers other women and some men, but also looks at different parts of her own life

I completely agree with Sissy. How can you know anything about prosperity if you don‘t know its distribution?

#WhatTheDickens

The 5th yr in a row that I‘m reading this at the beginning of the yr. I‘m not much of a rereader so that saying a lot. There‘s not much text in this one, but I absolutely love Lisa Aisato‘s illustrations and how she‘s reusing them to create new stories.

#12Booksof2024 December

Honorable mentions:
Xiania 2 Ada by Lotta Elstad
A Sunny Place for Shady People by Mariana Enriquez

Thanks for doing this challenge again this year Andrew and reminding of what a great reading year I‘ve had

#WeeklyForecast

Continue with my yearlong reads on the right

Continue with the buddy reads; Lark Rise to Candleford #Hashtagbrigade, Sense and Sensibility #PemberLittens #JaneAustenThenAndNow and Hard Times #WhatTheDickens

I want to finish Gliff

I want to continue listening to the tagged book

I want to start both The Diary of Anne Frank #Netherlands #foodandlit and Wild Houses

#12Booksof2024 November

Honorable mentions:
The Cinnamon Bun Book Store by Laurie Gilmore
Monsters: What Do We Do With Great Art by Bad People? By Claire Dederer

#BookReport

This looks way more impressive than it actually is, and I may be wanting to do too much

I read Gift, Christmas in the Big Forest, The Bookshop and Colors of Life

I continued the tagged on audio

I‘ve started The Position of Spoons and Gliff

I started some new buddy reads; Lark Rise to Candleford #Hashtagbrigade, Sense and Sensibility #PemerLittens #JaneAustenThenAndNow and Hard Times #WhatTheDickens

I started some yearlong reads

A Taylor Swift reference in an Ali Smith novel. Never thought this would happen

#12Booksof2024 October

A pioneer. Advocating women‘s right to chose over her own body in the late 19th/ early 20th century, and that women didn‘t have true freedom until they could. She was a huge influence in the first children‘s law in Norway, giving children born in and outside of marriage the same rights and forcing men to pay for their children. She also talked out the right to abortion 70 yrs before Norway had such laws

Late 1950s and Florence Green decides to open a bookshop in her small town - the first bookshop in town. But does everyone want one?

Shows the dynamics in a small town and how the people with power isn‘t necessarily the men with the powerful positions.

My #BookSpinBingo card for January is ready

#BookSpin is the 15th book I‘ll read with #NancyDrewBR
#DoubleSpin is one of my most anticipated novels from last year and the second in the duology is supposed to out in May this year

#12Booksof2024 September

Evie Wyld is fast becoming a new favorite author

Honorable mentions:
Funny Story by Emily Henry
Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors
You Are Here by David Nichols
The Pumpkin Spice Cafe by Laurie Gilmore

In celebration of Jane Austen‘s 250th birthday this year, The Jane Austen House is out with a new podcast, A Jane Austen Year - a seasonal journey of her novels and life.

They also have a book out with the same name, A Jane Austen Year

In case there are any other Jane Austen lovers out there who are interested in this.

#PemberLittens #JaneAustenThenAndNow
@Crinoline_Laphroaig

My first #BookSpin, #DoubleSpin and #BookSpinBingo list for the year is ready

January has generally not been my best reading month quality wise and I‘m trying to change that this year. In addition to buddy reads and challenges, I added books by some favorite authors and potential favorite authors that I didn‘t get to in 2024. Hopefully this will kickstart my reading year

Thank you for hosting the challenge again this year Sarah

What a first paragraph. Dickens knows how to pull you in

#WhatTheDickens

My edition that I bought some years ago.

I don‘t know anything about this book, but looking forward to reading it with #WhatTheDickens

#12Booksof2024 August

This book made me so mad while I read it, and now just thinking about, I get mad all over again about all the injustices and maltreatment of women

Ready to start my two year-long reads

Year of Wonder is a reread/ relisten and I hope to do better than last time where I ended up listen to 20 pieces at a time to catch up.

I‘m looking forward to all the bookish fun facts in The Booklover‘s Almanac

Another book I read during my summer vacation

Aima and Kalu has just broken up, and Kalu has driven Aima to the airport so she can get back to London. Aima changes her mind and contacts a friend. Kalu contacts his best friend. They‘re all in for a weekend that will change them for ever. For Lagos isn‘t what it seem, when you start scratching, it‘s full of sex parties, blackmail, cover ups and murder.

Read during my summer vacation

The 3rd book in The Joubert Family Chronicles. I haven‘t read the other books and sometimes felt I was missing something, but it didn‘t effect my enjoyment of the book

The blurb is misleading since the piracy doesn‘t happen until the last 50p. Up until that point this is a book about women not confirming to the gender roles. One wants to be a captain on a ship, one lives as a man and one lives with a woman

#12Booksof2024 July

This stayed with long after finishing

Honorable mentions
Søstrene (The Sisters) by Jonas Hassen Khemiri
Caledonian Road by Andrew O‘Hagan
My Friends by Hisham Matar
The Garden Against Time by Olivia Laing

A children‘s Christmas book with 25 chapters so could probably be used as an advent calendar as well.

A pixie looses his hat and mittens in some bad weather and where to the wind take them but to the rabbits. The rabbits suddenly starts hearing about a pixie coming for Christmas and start preparing.

The illustrations were amazing and I particularly loved all the ones with rabbits in them.

It‘s the lead up to Christmas and as the title suggests, our characters are thinking about gifts. I think it‘s interconnected short stories where one character from the previous story will be the main character in the next one.

Even if these are Christmasy, they do look into some serious topics like trauma, partner abuse and grief

The 5th and last book in The Cazalet Chronicles. At the end of the vol 4 it was 1947, and when we meet them again it‘s 1956. A lot has happened in 9 yrs. I enjoyed being back with the family, but in this one there‘s a lot of endings. Some of these I anticipated others I didn‘t. We celebrate several Christmas‘ with the family which was why I read it now, I just wish we had left the family on a more uplifting note.

#12Booksof2024 June

You don‘t need to want to be a mother or have children, to be the target audience for this. This is for everyone and is so eye opening

This story is growing on me. When I first read it a few years ago, I didn‘t understand the fuss. Last year a Norwegian translation was out with illustrations by Lisa Aisato, and since I love her illustrations, I decided to give it another chance. I liked it, and so I ended up reading it again this year.

#WhatTheDickens

This is an absolute treat. It‘s the 3rd Christmas in a row that I‘m reading this and it‘s not even very Christmasy.

Inspired by the Cinderella story, I just love the humor in this one. It‘s not laugh out loud fun, but more the tone it‘s written in. This is written by Julia Quinn‘s sister, but if you read anything by Quinn you know what I mean.

The 3rd book in the Dream Harbor series and it‘s another winner.

Just the right amount of Christmas and I liked our main characters. Bennett visiting his sister Jeanie and Kira who is the new Christmas tree farm owner.

I like how previous couple reappear and the book club. The book club members are amazing

Another short story collection winner from Enriquez.

These stories focuses on the horrific in the everyday, in relationships and how generational trauma effects us. I think that is what makes these stories so scary. Like in the first story where a young boy dies in a troubled neighborhood because no one dares open their door and he comes back to hunt them.

Nancy Drew and her friends George and Bess, are following Nancy‘s father across the country on a business trip. Before they get so far they encounter a dog that follows Nancy everywhere, hear about a statue that looks just like Nancy.

There‘s also all the other Nancy Drew plot lines.

But along the way I did wonder if Ned had gotten some competition?

#NancyDrewBR

#12Booksof2024 May

Honorable mentions:
Xiania 1 by Lotta Elstad
How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair

#WeeklyForecast

I‘m about to start Gifts

This week doesn‘t only mark the beginning of a new month, but also a new year, so I‘ll be starting some new books.

So I‘ll start Lark Rise to Candleford #hashtagbrigade and The Position of Spoons

Two yearlong reads:
A reread/ relistening of Year of Wonder
The Book Lovers Almanac

#BookReport

I finished A Christmas Carol

Read Miss Butterworth and the Mad Baron

I‘ve almost finish reading All Change

#12Booksof2024 April

I‘ve read too many great books this year and it‘s so hard to chose one from every month. But this has stuck with me

Honorable mentions:
Brotherless Night by V. V. Ganeshananthan
Soldier Sailor by Claire Kilroy
Forgotten on a Sunday by Valerie Perrin

I‘m going to an event with Nnedi Okorafor in early February. I‘ve never read anything by this author, but I‘ve tagged the book I‘m most familiar with. But I have an issue with books under 200 pages, so is this a good place to start or should I read something else?

#12Booksof2024 March

A nonfiction book so good that when I found it was already translated, I wanted to read the translation too. I haven‘t gotten to that yet, but will do sometime during 2025

Honorable mentions:
Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Nolan
Wifedom: Mrs Orwell‘s Invisible Life by Anna Funder

#12Booksof2024 February

Choosing a book didn‘t get any easier for February, but since I highlighted a fiction book in January I thought I should highlight a nonfiction in February

Other honorable mentions are: Christmas at the Beach Hut by Veronica Henry, The Swifts by Beth Lincoln and The Strangeworld Travel Agency by L. D. Lapinski

From an article in “Oh Reader” issue 017 essay titled “The Sanctity of Buying a Book”.

I remember being swept up in the story when I read it years ago

#12Booksof2024 January

This was hard, but I love Heartstopper too much not to pick it, both the comics and the TV series

Rilla is back at Applemore, the place she spent her childhood summers, to clear out her father‘s place after his death. At Applemore she meets childhood friends and Lachlan, her childhood crush. Lachlan had also returned to find out what he want to do with Applemore House after his father‘s death.

Can old love be as new? And will some secrets be uncovered along the way?

I quite enjoyed this romcom.

5th book for #Adventathon

In 1693 2 young Frenchmen, Rene Sel & Charles Duquet travel to New France, & get employed by the same ‘seigneur‘. One escapes & the other stays. For the next 400 yrs we learn how their decision effects their family line

A story about the conquering of land by the Europeans & the destruction of the greats threes that had been standing there for hundreds of yrs. A story about what humans do with things that are in plentiful & will never disappear