May Reading

A lot of reading in hardcopy and less listening for a change.

The Kamogawa Food Detectives. This was recommended by a few of the bloggers (want to say Min first but who knows?). It's short and light, but fun and sweet. I liked the thoughts about food and memory, recreating over regret and also the very Japanese ideas in the street and dishes. We'd just been in Kyoto so it's a perfect book for travellers. There is a bit of repetition (felt like a made for tv series) which bothered my mum but I didn't mind. I am very pleased to see some of the other books are being translated.

Fourteen Days This was a project written in lockdown and Margaret Atwood edited it. It's a book of short stories woven into a larger story. Some of the contributers are Margaret Atwood, Sylvia Day, Emma Donoghue, Dave Eggers, Diana Gabaldon, Tess Gerritsen, John Grisham, Erica Jong, Celeste Ng, Tommy Orange, Doug Preston, R.L. Stine, Nafissa Thompson-Spires, Meg Wolitzer and more, 36 in all. You read it blind, in that you don't know who wrote what. Because I listened to it borrowed from the library, I didn't get the pdf attachment that did tell you who did what. I did manage to track down a partial list and it was interesting to see some authors play around with their style. It's a really fun way to see what people chose to do with their story. The main characters weave throughout the whole book so even if you don't think you like short stories, this would still work for you. I think the hardcopy book has the list at the back. If you do read it, try to not check it out until the end, though like me, you may get too curious not to want to work out who wrote what.

Got a free bathbombs at Lush on Mother's day.Made reading in the bath a bigger indulgence!

Smart Ovens for Lonely People Another collection of short stories, but this time actual short stories. Really fun, kooky and creative. I really enjoyed this book, at times sad and a lot of the time sweet. Or sinister. I can see why it was longlisted for the Stella Prize. Great book.

Close to Death Every year I eagerly await the new Hawthorne book, and I am thrilled he said there are 10 more to come (or at least 5 if he meant there were 10 in all). I adore Horowitz. He's smart and funny and these meta fiction books, where the author is the begrudging Dr Watson-style narrator of the story are charming and literally delightful. For me they are a joy to read. Only criticism is I now have to wait at least 11 months for the next one. This is book number 5. You can read in any order but the jokes and references work better if you read in order. (I don't really read his other stuff but his  Diamond Dectective books were a fave for me to read to my kids, who were less amused at my uncontrollable laughter runing the flow of the story.)

Number One is Walking We watched the Steve Martin doco and this book came up so I got a copy. It's a sweet collection of cartoons that tell short anecdotes from the movies he's made. Things famous people said to him, how ideas made the film, encouragement from idols etc.

Unleashed Facebook threw me an ad for a crime series and it interested me enough to give it a shot. This is the first in the Sydney Rye series (I got books 1-3 on audible for the price of 1). It opens with a hilarious Starbucks scene that got me onside almost immediately. It's fallen into the pattern of more normal crime/mystery books, so is easy and interesting, however, I'm hoping more of the strong character building in the first chapter continues in the later books. I've about 2/3 of the way through.

Yet to read (but up next), I attended the book launch of this book and learnt a few more things about it. Post is here.

Last chance to see Grace Petrie perform this show from last year's Edinburgh Festival. Tickets for you lucky UK people are here.
















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