Sue Fairhead's Blog, page 32

The Other Passenger (by Louise Candlish)

I have been reading novels by Louise Candlish for over a decade now. Her writing is excellent, fast-paced and her novels have tight, often very clever plots. Her later books have been in the psychological thriller category, tense and page-turning, yet without being scary. So when I saw ‘The Other Passenger’ in a church book sale for 50 cents, I had no hesitation in buying it. It took nearly a year to read it - and just three days to finish. 

Jamie is the main protagonist of the novel, which is t...

Missee Lee (by Arthur Ransome)

I needed one more book to read in order to complete my GoodReads ‘challenge’ of 100 books in 2022. I perused my shelves for quite a while, knowing it needed to be fairly quick to read, yet I didn’t want another very short children’s book. At last I settled on Arthur Ransome’s ‘Missee Lee’, one of the Swallows and Amazons books which I had liked very much as a child. It’s at least 25 years since I last read it; possibly longer. However I re-read it several times as a child and teenager, so had a...

When you walk (by Adrian Plass)

Around a year ago, at the end of 2021, I decided to use a book of daily Bible readings with commentaries in 2022. So I looked at the shelf where we keep books and booklets with short devotional passages or comments, intended to be read over the course of a month or a year. The one that looked most appealing was ‘When you walk’ by Adrian Plass. The subtitle is ‘365 readings for ordinary followers of Jesus who sometimes find the going a bit tough.’ It sounded ideal, and I hadn’t read it since 200...

Starry, Starry Night (by Marcia Willett)

Marcia Willett has been one of my favourite authors for many years now. Every time she published a new novel, I put it on my wishlist as soon as it was available in paperback. That’s the case with ‘Starry, Starry Night’, published in 2021, and which I received for Christmas. I picked it up to read yesterday and finished it today. It’s not a long read - just 215 pages, unlike many of the author’s much longer novels. 

I’m saddened to read that Marcia Willett died six months ago after the return of...

Almost Everything (by Anne Lamott)

I don’t recall where I first came across Anne Lamott. But I was evidently impressed enough by what I saw or read (or perhaps by someone’s recommendation) that I put three of her books on my wishlist nearly a year ago, and was given them for my birthday, back in the spring. I read and very much liked ‘Bird by Bird’, the author’s advice on writing. So it was with enthusiasm that I picked up ‘Almost Everything’ a couple of weeks ago, determined to read a chapter or so each morning.

The subtitle of ...

Second Form at Malory Towers (by Enid Blyton)

Having just finished Enid Blyton’s ‘First Term at Malory Towers’, which I hadn’t read for about thirty years, I liked it so much I picked up its first sequel ‘Second Form at Malory Towers’ to read immediately afterwards. It’s probably thirty years since I last read that, too. These books were some of my favourites in my teenage years, and I re-read them almost yearly; I hadn’t forgotten the main characters, but with a thirty-year break, I had not remembered many of the subplots.

Over a year has ...

First Term at Malory Towers (by Enid Blyton)

It’s that time of year, nearing the end, when I realise I haven’t quite managed the 100 books I planned to read during the year. I’m not far off: 94 completed, and a couple I’m reading slowly that I should finish on December 31st. But that still meant I needed to read four books in about six days… and I knew I wasn’t going to read much on Christmas Day. Time, I decided (as happens most years) to find a few childhood favourites: shortish books that I can read in just an hour or two, without any ...

Where's my Girl? (by Malcolm Saville)

I’m so glad I decided to re-read the ‘Lone Pine’ series by Malcolm Saville. I started with ‘Mystery at Witchend in August 2020, and - interspersed with many other books - I’ve gradually read them, some in the full ‘Girls Gone By’ editions for the first time.  I’m almost at the end now; I’ve just finished reading the 19th in the series, ‘Where’s My Girl?’. I have a hardback edition, which I apparently bought when I was seventeen, the book was only published a few years earlier so I have a full e...

Envious Casca (by Georgette Heyer)

I’ve been taking a break, this past year, from Georgette Heyer’s historical romance novels, and instead re-reading some of her mid-20th century detective fiction. I thought I might finish ten or eleven of them during the year (I had no wish to re-read ‘Penhallow’) but have only managed six, albeit interspersed with many other books. 

In 2023 I’m going to go back to re-reading the Regency and other historical novels, so as it’s close to Christmas it made sense for my last chosen detective book of...

Jo to the Rescue (by Elinor M Brent-Dyer)

In my meandering, gradual read-through of the lengthy Chalet School series by Elinor M Brent-Dyer (with a few extra fill-ins) I reached ‘Jo to the Rescue’. As a young teenager this wasn’t one of my favourites, but when I re-read it as an adult, it shot up in my estimation, and I now count it as one of my top five. However, although it’s ten years since I last read it, I almost skipped it this time as I had made the mistake of reading the fill-in ‘A Chalet School Headmistress’ directly after ‘Ga...