May Round-Up

 A fiction month with a smattering of poetry and only two library books. But.... two ebooks. Yikes!

I began the month with SJ Bradley's Maps of Imaginary Towns. It isn't published yet so I won't blog until publication day - September 27th 2024. It's a diverse short story collection where the majority of stories are open ended and begging for the reader to form not necessarily their own conclusion but their own interpretations of what might happen next. 

Next up Was Stacey Halls' The Foundling. I had recently read The Household which motivated me too seek out another of her books. I did blog about this one! https://bookphace.blogspot.com/2024/04/the-household-stacey-halls.html 

Claire Douglas' The Wrong Sister was a Tandem Collective mail out. I'd never read any of this author's books before but I hope to rectify this. I was gripped. It was genuinely unputdownable. https://bookphace.blogspot.com/2024/05/the-wrong-sister-claire-douglas.html

I like to walk. But as I've aged and arthritis has taken such a hold I find myself needing to sit down more frequently to let my hurting joints recover a bit. I'm happy to view the natural landscapes abut I also like to read. And so I have the kindle app on my phone. I don't enjoy reading on a kindle but I've found that reading a couple of chapters allows my body to recharge enough to carry on walking. It takes me a longer time to read a book this way but I will admit to finding it enjoyable. I finished Linda Huber's The Cold, Cold, Sea a tense missing child story.

Kate Grenville's A Room Made of Leaves was my next read. A delightful piece of antipodean hisfic.

https://bookphace.blogspot.com/2024/05/a-room-made-of-leaves-kate-grenville.html

Poetry was my next stop. It is for a blog tour in June so the blog post will be ready a little later. Christiana Jasutan is a young poet and This is where I find the softest hurt is her debut collection exploring the relationship between the body and the world using a variety of style and form. 

Lying Perfectly Still by Laura Fish isn't published until October 2024 so my review is not due yet. It is about Koliwe who leaves the UK for a job as an aid worker in Swaziland. The novel examines some of the corruption within the system. 

Another Kate Grenville story. This time The Secret River which tells the tale of one of Grenville's ancestors sent to Oz as a convict in the nineteenth century. I reviewed it. https://bookphace.blogspot.com/2024/05/the-secret-river-kate-grenville.html

A new book by Sarah Perry is always a treat. I reserved this at my local library. and they had to send out to another library to get a copy! Ambitious, complex and beautifully written, Enlightenment had me rapt.

I was lucky enough to be sent a finished copy of Liv Constantine's The Next Mrs Parrish. But first I needed to read The Last Mrs. Parrish! And quick. So I did. But on the dreaded kindle. That's two books on the kindle this month. What's happening to me?!