Today I bring you big news. The first daffodil has blossomed in my garden. Just the one mind you but I take it as a positive sign that Spring is on its way. It can’t come too soon for me — I hate the long winter days.
The other big piece of news is that I’m going to be hosting my first ever reading event later this year. After 12 years of blogging (soon to be 13)) I thought it was about time I took the plunge. So as of last week I am now the host of the annual Wales Reading Event, taking over from Paula at BookJotter. She’s going to be a hard act to follow.
I hope you’ll all join in with this celebration of the literature from Wales and Welsh authors. Wales Reading Month ’25 will run from March 1 to March 31 so you have plenty of time to raid those TBR shelves and search the catalogues of your local library for something suitable. If anyone needs inspiration or ideas, just pop a comment on here and I’ll do my best.
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Favourite Book of the Month
January was a good month all round with a pleasing variety of locations and topics in the books I read. Having said that, I don’t think any of them were outstanding.
If I had to pick one, it would be Money by Emile Zola. This was the book I landed in the most recent Classics Club spin and that I was “supposed” to read by December 18 last year. Well I missed the deadline by a long way but no matter.
It took me ages to read it, partly because the text in my edition was on the small size. and densely set. I’ve found through reading of his other novels that Zola does love detailed narratives and this was no exception. The focus is on on the financial world in mid nineteenth century France, showing how unscrupulous people could easily become rich through speculation and manipulation because banking and company laws were too weak.
The main character Aristide Saccard, is a fascinating study of the kind of person who persuades others that they’ll make a mint by backing his grand plans. But there’s little to support his claims about the fortunes to be made. It was impossible to read this book without thinking about those financial scandals in our own life time like Enron and the Lehman Brothers.
The Ones That Got Away
No books given away unread this month and nothing that I failed to finish. I’m not counting Pod by Laline Paull which was the book club choice for January. I had a strong feeling even before I opened it, that it wouldn’t be to my taste because it’s written from the point of view of a dolphin and I just can’t relate to anthropomorphic narratives. Well I got three pages in and that was more than enough.
The Newcomers
The wheels came off the waggon in January and it was all the fault of the National Trust. If they hadn’t organised a briefing for volunteers I wouldn’t been anywhere near their second hand bookshop. Nor would I have been tempted by some of the new donations. They were such a bargain though I couldn’t possibly leave them for someone else to snaffle.
I’ve loved the previous books I’ve read by Edna O’Brien and she just happens to be the focused author chosen this year by Cathy at 746books and Kim at Reading Matters. Of course Girl had to come home with me. Last year they featured Colm Toibin, another Irish author I enjoy though I don’t know this particular title, The Blackwater Lightship.
Edward St Aubyn is a name I’ve seen floating around in the blogosphere though I mixed him up with Armistead Maupin. Don’t ask me how that happened — their names are not at all alike and one is American, the other British. But muddle them up I did and so have never read any of St Aubyn’s Patrick Melrose novels which I’m told are wonderful. Mother’s Milk isn’t part of that series but I bought it anyway just so I can sample his work.
Nora Ephron is a completely new author to me though she has zillions of fans, including bloggers whose opinions I trust.
I’m not entirely sure about the Anne Tyler. I’ve read two others by her and though they were pleasant, they lacked a certain sparkle. But this hardback was on sale for just £1 so I thought it was well worth taking a punt. You never know, this could be the book that gets me into her fan club.