SueD tackles those stubborn ROOTs!

Towards the end of last year we had to empty many of our bookshelves to have new flooring laid. I would recommend this as a reminder of the number of TBRs there are on the shelves. I have decided to try and read 50 of them this year (a ticker will be added next).

I have already read one: Life Love and the Archers by Wendy Cope, the British poet best known for her anthology Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis. This is a selection of her articles and reviews. I enjoyed them very much - she writes clearly and honestly and with humour. I was particularly pleased to see that like me she is a fan of the Molesworth books by Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle ( The Compleet Molesworth contains all four of the books).

Welcome to the group, and good luck with shifting the books!

Thanks for the welcome! I'm hoping to achieve my aim as well as keep up with my reading group books and the fatal attraction of new publications and library books.

Here is my ticker:

Welcome and happy rooting in 2018!

Welcome to the ROOTers, Sue. Happy ROOTing.

Welcome and good luck reading your ROOTs!

Have a great reading year!

Hi, and welcome, Sue - happy ROOTing! :)

Welcome and enjoy the shifting!

Thanks to you all!

Happy ROOTing in 2018!

Glad you're with us!

Thanks for the welcome!

At the end of this month I have only read the one book I added earlier, but I have read three books from my Kindle which I bought before 2018 (my definition of a ROOT).

These are:

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Died in the Wool by Ngaio Marsh
and
In This Grave Hour by Jacqueline Winspear

I was slightly disappointed by the Asher book, and thought the idea was better than the execution. For a book about such an emotive subject, I wasn't gripped.
The Marsh book is a vintage crime novel written in the 1940s with class and racial attitudes to match!
The Winspear was the latest in the Maisie Dobbs series, which I always enjoy.

Otherwise this month I read for my reading group and succumbed to the latest Lee Child which I'd requested from the library. I hope to do a little better next month!

Paper, ebook, audio - your thread, your rules - looks like you're on track anyway!

My first ROOT of February is Blue Light Yokohama by Nicolas Obregon. This is a crime novel set in Japan which I found interesting and atmospheric, despite one or two slight plot holes.

And my second (I raced through this) is Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell. The book is so readable that it's only after you finish it that you think 'hang on a minute...' - the plot depends on something extremely far-fetched which I part-guessed, but the plot is compulsive and I became emotionally involved.

I've just finished my third ROOT of the month - Harbour Street by Ann Cleeves. This is a crime novel of a traditional type - a murder occurs, then another, there are plenty of suspects and you don't work out who did it until the very end. This is an excellent example of that type - the central characters are well drawn and the evocation of place is effective. I had forgotten until I began reading it that my copy is signed by the author and also Brenda Blethyn, the actress who plays Vera Stanhope in the TV series. This brought back happy memories of the crime writing festival where I bought the book, but also of course makes it harder to part with because of the signatures!

>19 vestafan: Wow! That must have been a fun crime festival :)

>19 vestafan: I wouldn't part with a book that's signed, Sue! I would treasure it.

It was the Theakston's Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate. It takes place at the hotel where Agatha Christie was found after she went missing. I've been twice and really enjoyed it. It lasts three days and features interviews with individual writers and panels discussing different topics. After each session, the authors sign copies of their books. The secret is to go with hardly anything in your luggage in order to pack all the books you buy away before returning home!

>22 vestafan: Nice! Theakston's is on my bucket list. This year I'm hoping to attend Bloody Scotland and will follow your packing advice for that one!

At the end of February I have made a little more progress with my ROOTs. I've read

We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - this is a transcription of a TED talk of the same name which the author gave - it deals with feminism from an African, specifically Nigerian perspective.
I've also just remembered Dead Like You by Peter James - one of the reliable Roy Grace series, which I did feel was a bit long-winded.

I've just finished my first ROOT for March:

Murder at Wrotham Hill by Diana Souhami - this is a true crime book, a genre I don't normally like, but this one appealed as it is also a commentary on post-war Britain and attitudes to different kinds of killing during and after WWII.

During the month of March I managed four more ROOTs:

The Blood Card by Elly Griffiths
Quieter Than Killing by Sarah Hilary
Stuff I've Been Reading by Nick Hornby
and
The Kept Woman by Karin Slaughter

The Griffiths, Hilary and Slaughter books are all parts of series that I try to keep up with. I would particularly recommend Sarah Hilary's Marnie Rome series. It would probably work better to read them in order (this is the fourth) as revelations about the past are made in each one. The Griffiths is part of a series set in 1950s Brighton with entertaining period detail. I am finding the Karin Slaughter Will Trent series hard going as there is one particular character I find quite repellent.

Then just when you think you're reading some of the enormous TBR pile, you read a book of reviews which leads to you adding more to your wish list!

Good reading in March! I have the Elly Griffiths on my TBR list as well.

I started reading her Ruth Galloway series and thought I might not like the Mephisto/Stephens series but I find I'm enjoying them just as much.

The number of ROOTs read in April shows a slowing down - only two!

A Note in Music by Rosamond Lehmann
and
Us by David Nicholls

>29 vestafan: Hi Sue, everybody slows down at some point. No need to worry.

Back up to speed this month, partly because I read quite a lot on my Kindle while on holiday. I've read

Everyday Sexism by Laura Bates - this made me so angry!
The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter
The Iron Hand of Mars by Lindsey Davis
and
Hatchet Job: Love Movies, Hate Critics by Mark Kermode

Yes, sometimes I just can't settle on the particular book I want to read, despite having so many.

>31 vestafan: Hi, Sue! I've been planning to read The Second Sex this year - might be interesting to read that first and then Everyday Sexism to see how things have *moved on* in 70 years.

*tongue firmly in cheek*

I've never read any Angela Carter but she's popped up in a number of threads so must rectify that before long as part of my efforts to read more women writers.

I've just finished one more ROOT for May -

The Crime at Black Dudley by Margery Allingham

This is a golden age crime novel which I enjoyed. Having said that, I understand that realism is not the selling point of this genre; even so, the ending was preposterous.

My ROOT reading for June amounts to three books:

The Other Elizabeth Taylor by Nicola Beauman
The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer
and
A Very English Scandal by John Preston

The Beauman is a biography of one of my favourite authors, hampered slightly by the fact that the novelist Elizabeth Taylor was a very private person.

The Filer book is a novel narrated by a man with mental health problems going back into his past. I read this for my reading group and the consensus was that it is worth reading with some black humour, but could be tough going for some.

The John Preston book is the one which the recent BBC series with Hugh Grant was based on. Its very enjoyable
and the phrase 'you couldn't make it up' applies to the whole situation.

A busy month in other ways means that I have only read three ROOTs this month:

Going to Sea in a Sieve by Danny Baker - memoirs of a BBC broadcaster and music fanatic who is one of those authors whose voice you can hear as you read his words.
Styx and Stones by Carola Dunn - one of the Daisy Dalrymple series - a relaxing and easy read.
Good Behaviour by Molly Keane - read for the VMC group monthly reads - a fantastically well written novel about some truly monstrous people

A slightly better month for getting through a few more ROOTs:

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
The Vanishing Box by Elly Griffiths
The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson
Die Last by Tony Parsons
and
Trooper to the Southern Cross by Angela Thirkell

Good job, Sue.

Thanks, I've slowed down a bit this month - I've read

Fear Not by Anne Holt
Pies and Prejudice by Stuart Maconie
and
The Nightmare Place by Steve Mosby

Three so far this month:

Daisy in Chains by Sharon Bolton
The Play Room by Olivia Manning
and
Novel on Yellow Paper by Stevie Smith

I may get another read before the end of the month, but I shall be away on holiday and away from media.

Happy holiday!

Thank you - I'm just back from a fantastic week in Greece.

Some more ROOTs read in October:

Mapp and Lucia by E.F. Benson
and
Black Money by Ross MacDonald

>43 vestafan: Black Money is on my on-deck pile! Hoping to read it before the end of the year.

I think you'll enjoy it. I'm on the look out for more Ross Macdonald.

I'm creeping towards my aim of 50 ROOTs but may not quite make it!

Three more this month:

A Misalliance by Anita Brookner
Dear Amy by Helen Callaghan
and
Moonraker by F Tennyson Jesse

I'm making a last minute push to get to my target of 50 ROOTs this year. I've read three so far this month:

Do They Think You're Stupid? by Julian Baggini - an interesting book about recognising faulty reasoning

Hercule Poirot's Christmas by Agatha Christie - seasonal vintage crime

and

He Who Kills the Dragon by Leif G W Persson

Excellent work! Good choice on the seasonal crime. I'm planning to borrow The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding from my parents when I go home for Christmas :)

Way to go, Sue. Four more to go!

I've read another seasonal ROOT since then - Crimson Snow edited by Martin Edwards, one of the British Library Crime Classics series, an anthology of crime short stories set in the winter season.

I think my final ROOT of the year is Portrait of a Murderer by Anne Meredith, a vintage crime novel set at Christmas with a psychological slant.

I've just remembered that I did read another ROOT earlier this month - Christmas at High Rising by Angela Thirkell.

So I've just fallen one short - 49 instead of 50!

>51 vestafan: Portrait of a Murderer is on my list! It sounds good.

I've enjoyed most of the British Library Crime Classics I've read - it's an interesting series.