My Reading Pile.

Thought it was time to do another blog. I have not done one for ages. It’s hard to think of a theme. At the moment I am so obsessed with reading and books and have acquired so many that I wonder if I will ever get them all read…..s I thought I would tell you about the ones that I am reading at the moment. I have 2 piles of books in situ……one pile downstairs and one at the bedside. The pile downstairs is number 6 and at my bedside, there are 3, so I am going to describe each one and what I think about it.

Downstairs pile…

1.The Bermondsey Bookshop by Mary Gibson…Set in London 1920s…Kate Goss lives in a cold garret, bullied by her aunt and cousins. She dreams of being rescued by her handsome father.No one knows where he is, or what he is doing, just that she is sure he will come back as a rich man. By the time Kate is 17….she had learnt to cope alone. When her aunt throws her out,she finds a job as a cleaner in the Bermondsey Bookshop and Reading room. Here she will discover a world she never knew existed. But the trouble is never far away and long-held secrets are about to burst into the open ensnaring her in a web of lies and violence.
What do I think about this……onto Chapter 8. It’s a steady read. I love books about bookshops etc…..but this is dealing with the people ect that Kate meets in the course of her cleaning…….someone is interested, a guy who wants to paint her….but she feels she is not worthy and he is far above her station in life. I will continue and try to complete.

2.Rory’s Boys…Alan Clark…..I am loving this and the characters are all so real. I am about halfway through…..Inheriting his grandmother’s crumbling mansion, Rory Blaine creates Britain’s first retirement home for gay men.Thirty years earlier, the teenage Rory had been exiled from the house, the only home he had ever known, when his sexuality was discovered.Now in his forties, beneath his tough exterior, he remains rootless and lonely.The prospective residents of “Rory’s Boys” are an eclectic bunch united only by a longing to grow old in a sympathetic haven.But the project becomes threatened,not only when the house is “outed” by the tabloids but by Rory’s complex and shifting relationships with his young partner Faisel,with Vic d’Orsay,and the elderly singing star who has funded the restoration and above all by the carefully constructed character Rory has built around himself….and suddenly there is a woman in his life.The book is about his struggle to accept who he is and the need most of us have to find some sort of family.
I am so enjoying reading this and expect I will both laugh and cry as I read it…… it’s going to be a 10/10 when I write my reviews ….yes I am crazy to do that to myself.

3.The Bloody Tower and other stories…Angela CarterThis is a retelling of 10 fairy stories…..Only read the Bloody Tower one……was not able to work out which fairy tale it is from. I intend to complete the other 9 stories…..but when??.

4.Cider  With Rosie….Laurie Lee….Always wanted to read this. I am at the part he has just gone up from the baby school into the big boy class and his life in a remote Cotswold village almost a century ago. Am enjoying what I have read.

5. My Story/The Diary of a Tudor Lady 1547-1554…Sue Reid. These are a series of “diaries” written by various people in History. I find it a lovely simple children’s way of understanding history.

6. A Vicarage Family…Noel Stratfield…Isobel, the eldest, is gentle and artistic; Louise, the youngest, is pretty and popular. And in the middle is Vicky, plain and awkward, who doesn’t fit in at home or school, and isnt talented like her sisters. But as Vicky grows up she starts to write stories and gradually realizes that she might not be as ordinary as she feels.This delightful story of childhood in the years before the First World War.Is closely based on its much-loved author’s own life.It is a lovely read like being cuddled in a warm blanket.

Bedside Reads.

1. Diary of a Baby/what your child feels, sees and experiences. This is a non-fiction book. Scattered through my many books and ones that just seem interesting. This is OK. The baby who the diary is given the name of Joey.

2. Contagion…..Teri Terry….Callie is missing. Her brother Kai is losing hope of ever seeing her again. Then he meets Shay,a girl who saw Callie the day she disappeared and his hope is reignited. Their search leads them to the heart of a terrifying epidemic that is raging through the country. Can Kaie and Shay escape
death and find Callie.
Just started reading this….each chapter is character headed.

3. Slaughterhouse 5…Kurt Vonnegut……I was chatting with a customer in the Oxfam Bookshop I volunteer in abot dystopian novels and she recommended this. Prisoner of war, optometrist, time traveller–these are the life roles of Billy Pilgrim, hero of this miraculously moving, bitter and funny story of innocence faced with the apocalypse. Slaughterhouse 5 is one of the world’s great anti-war books. Centring on the infamous fire-bombing of Dresden in the Second World War, Billy Pilgrims’ odyssey through time reflects the journey of our own fractured lives as we search for the meaning of what we are afraid to know.

If anyone would like my copy after I have read it I would be happy to pass it on. Just let me know on Facebook or private message me. Until next time.