Sue Fairhead's Blog, page 67

A Week in Paris (by Rachel Hore)

I have read about half a dozen novels by Rachel Hore over the past ten years or so. I have liked them all, although not so much that I immediately put all her other books on my wishlist. However, when I spotted ‘A Week in Paris’ at a church book sale a few months ago, it was an easy decision to buy it. It sat on my to-be-read shelf since then, and I picked it up to read a few days ago.

As with many recent books, this story takes place in two separate time periods, and the plot involves the gr...

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (by JK Rowling)

I was a huge fan of the Harry Potter books by JK Rowling when they were first published in the late 1990s and early part of the 21st century. I read most of them aloud to my teenage sons as soon as we acquired them, as we could not decide who would read them first. They were excellent books to read aloud - often for hours in a day - but I also enjoyed re-reading them myself just a few years later. And again, when the seventh book was published.

But I hadn’t read them for over ten years; so i...

A Price for Everything (by Mary Sheepshanks)

In the past eighteen months I have started re-reading, in a mostly organised fashion, the books by some of my favourite authors. I decided it was time to re-read my books by Mary Sheepshanks (confusingly also known as Mary Nickson). It had been quite a long time since I read any of them, so I decided to start with ‘A Price for Everything’, which I first read in 2006.

I had totally forgotten what this book was about, and the characters in it. So that was a good start - it felt like a new book,...

The Forever House (by Veronica Henry)

I had not heard of Veronica Henry when Amazon started recommending one of her books to me, a couple of years ago, based on what I had previously liked. I like to try new authors, and the reviews of her books seemed mostly positive, so I added ‘The Forever House’ to my wishlist. I was given it for my birthday nearly eighteen months ago, and it sat on my to-be-read shelf for all that time.

I finally started it on Sunday, and finished it this morning. What a wonderful book! It’s well-written, wi...

Madam, Will You Talk? (by Mary Stewart)

I have been enjoying re-reading my Mary Stewart novels. I first discovered this author when I was a teenager, and borrowed several of her books from my school library. I started acquiring them an adult years later, and was delighted when many of them were re-published in the past ten years. I was given ‘Madam, Will you Talk?’ just over eight years ago, and read it almost immediately. So it was more than time for a re-read.

The story is about a young woman called Charity, who is on holiday in...

A Long Walk in Wintertime (by Libby Purves)

I am very much enjoying re-reading my Libby Purves novels, interspersed with others of my favourite writers, and some new (to me) books. In the last couple of days I have re-read ‘A Long Walk in Wintertime’, a book which I have only previously read once, back in 2004. I knew I liked it very much but had totally forgotten the story and the characters.

It was perhaps a mistake to read it immediately after finishing Rosie Thomas’s ‘If my father loved me’ as there are a lot of similarities....

If My Father Loved Me (by Rosie Thomas)

I saw the book ‘If my father loved me’ on a church bookstall nearly a year ago. I vaguely remembered having read a couple of books by Rosie Thomas before, though I didn’t recall whether or not I liked them. But I was drawn to the cover, the byline (‘Is it ever too late to forgive?’) and the blurb on the back. So I paid my fifty pence and it has sat on my to-be-read shelf for many months.

I finally decided, at the end of last week, to read it. I am so glad I did. I was drawn into the storylin...

The Spiritual Career (by Wayne Back)

From time to time I browse free Kindle books; some out of copyright, some taster books for a series, and some which have been offered free for a limited period. Amazon tells me that it’s seven years since I downloaded ‘The Spiritual Career’ by Wayne Back - an Australian businessman whom I had never heard of. I finally started reading it at the end of July, dipped into it from time to time while travelling in August, and finished it at the weekend.

The theme of the book is sound, and I thought...

The Convenient Marriage (by Georgette Heyer)

I was tired and a bit brain-fogged after a day of travelling, so decided to pick up a book by one of my favourite comfort-reading authors, Georgette Heyer. I’m gradually re-reading her books anyway, interspersed with others, and the one I selected this time was ‘The Convenient Marriage’. I had previously read it at least five times, the last one being in 2008.

While I had forgotten most of the details, and indeed the names of the main characters, the basic storyline soon came back to me. Thi...

The Wrong Child (by Patricia Kay)

I had never heard of Patricia Kay, although I gather she’s quite a prolific writer from the United States. I downloaded this free for my Kindle about a year ago, and decided to read it recently, the bulk of that being on a flight.

‘The Wrong Child’ has an unusual premise: due to a terrible blizzard followed by a tragedy, two baby girls are accidentally switched at birth. The prologue is abrupt and melodramatic, and the first two or three chapters are then a bit confusing with quite a large c...