Reading - July 2016

I've got lots of books to tell you about this month, mainly because I read quite a bit on holiday and also because my July reading was actually started in June, I wrote my Reading - June post early because I was going away.

I read One Day by David Nicholls back in 2014 and when I saw Us by the same author in our local library, I decided to pick it up. The book is about a married couple, Douglas and Connie, who are on the brink of waving their only son off to university. Then comes the bombshell, Connie announces to Douglas that she too is thinking of leaving. In an attempt to save their marriage, Douglas decides to make their last family holiday the trip of a lifetime and they all embark on the Grand Tour of Europe. I found parts of this book quite boring and I certainly enjoyed it less than One Day.

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is one of my favourite books, I don't often read a book more than once but I made an exception with this book. I wasn't sure I wanted to read the recently released Go Set A Watchman, a novel set two decades after To Kill A Mockingbird, which has received mixed reviews, but I couldn't leave it on the shelf when I saw it in the library. I'd read that this novel was, in fact, written before To Kill A Mockingbird but it had been turned down by publishers. After the huge success of To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee insisted that she'd never publish another book but Go Set A Watchman was brought to the publisher's attention when Harper Lee reached the age of 89 and was frail and sight and hearing impaired after suffering from a stroke and the novel was published. Had she really wanted this book to be published? We'll never know as Harper Lee sadly died in February. I'd got it in my mind that I wouldn't enjoy this book after reading some reviews but I was glad to be proved wrong, I actually loved the book, not as much as To Kill A Mockingbird, but I would certainly recommend it.

The newest book in the Nightingale series by Donna Douglas is Nightingales Under The Mistletoe and this is another book I found in the library. This book is set during Christmas 1941 and some of the nurses we've met earlier in the series are revisited. I can thoroughly recommend this set of books but I'd advise you to read them in chronological order to get the most out of them.

My Agatha Christie book this month was Murder In Mesopotamia. The story is set at the site of an archaeological dig and not only did the little Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, solve this mystery, so did I. I'd actually guessed the murderer before I was half way through the book. Perhaps the more I read, the more I'm getting in to Agatha Christie's mindset. I still enjoyed the book though.

I've had A Song For Issy Bradley by Carys Bray on my Kindle waiting to be read for some time and I've finally got round to it. The story is about the Bradley family, Ian a bishop in the Mormon church, his wife, Claire, who converted to the faith when she met Ian, Zippy, their sixteen year old daughter, Al and Jacob, thirteen and seven year old sons, and Issy who's just four when she dies at the beginning of the book. I thought this was a very moving story and showed not only how each member of the family dealt with the tragic circumstances but also gave an interesting insight in to the Mormon faith. This is another book I'd thoroughly recommend.

I thought While My Eyes Were Closed by Linda Green sounded like my kind of book, a mother playing hide and seek in the park with her daughter, when she opens her eyes, four year old Ella is gone, nowhere to be found. Where is she and who's snatched her? It wasn't really what I was expecting, I think so much more could have been made out of the story, it was quite weak and the ending was terrible, it seemed rushed and left you having to make up your own mind about what happened next. Perhaps I expect too much.

I was offered Follow You Home by Mark Edwards as a free download on my Kindle. Psychological Thrillers aren't the usual genre I read but I do enjoy some, unfortunately, this wasn't one of them. I found the story really boring and I struggled to read it. It seemed to pick up pace towards the end but I actually heaved a sigh of relief when it was finally finished. I know I should have abandoned it really but I hate to let a book beat me.

The One Plus One by Jojo Moyes was another book I picked up at the library. I've only read one of her books before and that was Me Before You which I absolutely loved, so I picked up this purely because I'd enjoyed that so much. I'm so glad I did, it was one of those books that I couldn't put down. I definitely didn't enjoy it as much as Me Before You, I thought that book was exceptional, but it's encouraged me to put the rest of Jojo Moyes books on my wish list.

Eight books read this month, some good, some not so good, but a good month overall.