June Reading...

 

Following on from the (mostly Cornwall-based) adventures of May, I confess I was rather looking forward to a more home-based month of June. In theory this ought to mean lots of time for reading, but in fact what all too often happens when I'm at home more is I end up spending more time on various screens, or simply doing odd jobs around the house or garden, rather than picking up a book. The first of those though is something I want to try to scale back a little - maybe this will be the month for that?

I began with a book that's been on my "to be read" shelf for a few months - Rowland White's "Harrier 809", an account of the exploits of some of the Harrier force during the Falklands conflict, and in particular RNAS 809 Squadron, from their standing up and going into action. I'm sometimes a bit wary of this sort of aviation based book as they can be very "dry" and I really am far more interested in photographing aircraft than reading about them! To some extend this did indeed fit that mould, with far more detail about individual sorties and tactical details than I would usually go for - at times I did struggle with it a bit, however the story of the personalities involved and the sheer level of determination needed to go from nothing to a full additional squadron of Harriers and Pilots being deployed kept me reading. Another review of the book said “a lot of acronyms” though - and the full ELEVEN pages of them at the back of the book underlines this! MrEH will probably read this one at some stage, so it will get kept for now, at least.  

Two new books in to report early in the month - an L J Ross - "The Cove" which was on the charity bookshelf in the supermarket (50p) and a Val McDermid - "The Mermaids Singing" which was in a book exchange outside a house near work. I must remember to take a couple of books along there in exchange at some stage. Those have both gone onto the "to be read" shelf. There was also a stack of books from a charity shop later in the month - I really must stop going in there until the "to be read" pile has shrunk at least a bit! 

Next up was a Mark Billingham - one of my absolute favourite authors, and particular the Tom Thorne series, of which this was one. From the Dead takes Thorne outside  the UK for a change, but maintains the usual themes of Thorne’s boundary pushing…the usual supporting cast are less evident in this one which is a shame, the leading characters interactions with the likes of Dave Holland are always entertaining, Holland is there in the background but doesn’t playa y significant part here. I realised early on that I had read this one before, but got fully half way through it before realising that there was in fact a copy on the shelf! As a result it will be heading back to the charity shop. 

A new to me author next - Joanna Cannon with The Trouble With Goats and Sheep. “Quirky” proclaimed the sticker on the cover, and so it was. A interesting twist was that the book is partly set in the summer of 1976 - something which has been very much in mind over the blazing hot June days while I was reading it! Nicely written- with characters you warm to and a good twist in the tail as well. I’ll set this one aside to go to Mum although I’m not entirely sure she will get on with it. 

Ending the month with an Ian Rankin Rebus novel - Set In Darkness. You know I believe that I love these because of the location as much as anything - Edinburgh is one of my favourite cities and it always works so well when a book is set somewhere you can actually picture. His characters are always so engaging though - and I love the fact that rather like the Reacher books, it doesn't matter if you don't read them in the order they were written. I got roughly half way through this before the end of the month, so that is where we will pick up in July...

Robyn