📘Is it a good fit…..June

The question at this time of the month is often What’s on the Table?
It turned out that on the day I took this – not a lot!

There’s the one I’m presently reading and the one I’ve just finished

Along with these two there has been one I’ve been dipping into online as well as a couple ‘read and returned’
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plus a little surprise at the bottom

Remember that other little challengey thing’ I have going, designed to get me reading more as well as thinking about what I’m reading…….not the A-Z letters/places…..but a simple A- Z of unread authors. 
Joining the ones read in February and March these should fit. 
Though that doesn’t mean to say they’ll be the ones that are recorded at end of the year😊

This is the one I’m plodding through trying to read at the moment

Starting over – Marcia Willett (1997).
* I started this way back at the beginning of April and just can’t get into it. There’s nothing ‘wrong’ with it, things are happening to people – one character considers her deceased husband is still around and has conversations with him…..her friend’s son believes he is responsible for a person’s death. That sort of stuff. .
If I could stick at it rather than pick it up/ put it down for weeks on end I’d probably find it gets better as it goes along but I’m putting it right off to one side for the moment. I’m taking it up to Bowen to see if it comes good there

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Finished recently.

The Wrong Door – Bunty Avieson (2003). .
Carolyn “Bunty” Avieson is an Australian journalist, feature writer, novelist and academic. souce

* Petes dead and Gwennie’s life will never be the same…..Somehow she struggles through the funeral in a daze, and the mysterious mourner in the tight-fitting red dress barely registers in her consciousness……The woman in red is Clare Dalton, and she has stumbled into the wrong funeral service.

Yes that’s right – two funerals in the same building and one person caused so much soul searching by going through ‘the wrong door’. Who was she and why was she there- so many questions, lots of ‘set up the background’ lead in on both main characters, so many dead ends, red herrings, coincidences,… a bit of a slow read – not a page turner (ooh this is good) but one you plod through make your way through slowly because you’re curious enough to find out what it was all about – which I’m glad I did because it turned out to be a good mystery with a twist at the end.
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Looking for an author to fit the letter I the library suggested Washington Irving, someone I’ll admit to not knowing. They had several of his works as ebooks, Rip van Winkle being one (which I had heard of, just not the author) but this 👇 is what I settled on.
It fitted in very nicely with my idea to ‘read something christmassy’ every now and again. Several short stories covering events and happenings around Christmastime in ‘Old England’.
just right for dipping into one interesting chapter at a time

Old Christmas: from the Sketch Book of Washington Irving (1820)
Also found as a free ebook (to have and to hold – to enjoy and reread) on Project Gutenberg – HERE.

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Two quick shelf picks read and now returned:-

The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever – Julia Quinn 2007.
* So this is the story of Miss Miranda Cheever, daughter of Sir Rupert Cheever, her close friend Lady Olivia Bevelstoke daughter of the Earl of Rudland and Olivia’s two brothers Winston and Nigel aka Turner

Written by the author of the Bridgestone series it’s a ‘sort of’ Regency Romance. Love never follows a straight path and there are lots of twists and turns in this love story. Easy to read and filled my letter Q quite nicely.
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The Frangipani Tree Mystery – Ovidia Yu (2017).
* 1936 in the Crown Colony of Singapore, When the Irish nanny looking after Acting Governor Palin’s daughter dies suddenly – and in mysterious circumstances – mission school-educated local girl Su Lin – is invited to take her place.

Another ‘cozy like’ mystery, this one is set In colonial Singapore middle 1930s. #1 in a series about a young girl who wants to move out of the wife/mother role she sees ahead of her and become a journalist. It did read as the first ‘setting the scene’ for a series, which was a shame.
Not a great deal of depth to the plot, younger modern readers might suggest touches of racism in some of the European /Asian content and I felt the ‘throwaway’ admission of homosexuality by one of the characters was just there ‘because’, There were bits of historical information included which set the scene for more to come. A shelf pick which turned out to be a reasonable not too deep read for the letter Y.
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And the little surprise alluded to earlier – I was at the library the other day, glanced over at the children’s area and found a friend.
A ‘‘babysitting’ grandma, someone I’d not seen for a while so we stood there chatting, as you do, and I noticed this little book on a rolling stand.
Looked vaguely familiar, no idea why but after the ‘ difficulties’ I was having with the Willett book and with this author’s surname beginning with W it came home with me😊

The Napping House – Audrey Wood 1984

One of those fun board books, strong and tough enough to be held (and maybe dragged around) by little ones. Written and beautifully illustrated by husband/wife team Audrey and Don Wood.

It has a storyline that grows and grows as each page is turned (think – there was an old lady who swallowed a fly) about a little one sleeping at Granny’s house and how everyone else in the house ends up in/on Granny’s bed
Simple ‘realistic’ descriptions of everyone- eg…snoozing cat, dozing dog, dreaming child, snorting granny, cozy bed that will have children giggling
Lots of fun and laughter as the story progresses- then something happens – not saying what – they all wake with a start and the bed breaks!

It finally came to me where I’d seen it.
On another blog – a couple of months ago!.

Hello Jane…👋

Jane lives in Nebraska and writes a weekly column at Prairie Spirits

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And here’s how I’m going with the ‘new to me’ authors so far this year
I’ve added a couple of book club finishes I haven’t spoken about
A Well Behaved Woman – Therese Ann Fowler.
Less – Andrew Sean Greer

Sharing with What’s on your Book Shelf Challenge

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